Rebecca Gail Mattson Kritscher 1971~1998

Rebecca and Thomas

The Miracle of Her Motherhood

Dec 7, 1971 ~ February 22, 1998

Rebecca, mostly known as Becky, was born just a few months before our daughter, Jen.  Becky was the only child of Jim's only sibling, Gary.  Becky was the first grandchild in our family on both sides so she was quite the celebrated young lady, granting all kinds of new titles to mother and father, grandparents, aunts and uncles alike. Of course when our Jennifer was born they were in each other's lives from the beginning and grew to best friends over time and many shared experiences.  It is always very sad when any member of a family passes from this life but the sting is particularly poignant when it is a young person.  Becky's father, Gary died tragically in an accident when she was only three.  The little picture you see of her and Jennifer below was taken in the same year she lost her Daddy. 

When Becky was a junior in high school she was diagnosed with Hotchkin's disease.  Cancer and being 16 create a pretty hard pill to swallow.  This devastating illness took its toll on every member of our family, but especially her mother Gail, and her husband, Michael and their son Thomas, only two when his Mommy died.  Of course this crushed her Grandmothers, Jen and our other kids, Chris and Laura and Jim and me too.

Rebecca was a very spiritually mature young woman, far beyond her years really and she endured and thrived on her faith alone at times.  She did have remissions which allowed her to have a fairly normal happy adulthood after she had a bone marrow transplant when she was about 19 years old.  During those years she finished college, married, and had her beautiful baby boy.   That little boy was her miracle.  The joys she had helped her through some very harsh treatments and some very difficult days.  The scripture below from the Book of Mormon gave our little nuclear family great comfort after her passing.

"Now concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection~

Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, 

as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, 

whether good or evil, are taken home to that God that gave them life.

And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest from all their troubles and from all cares and sorrow." Alma 40:11-12

 

Jennifer & Rebecca ~Both age 3

Best Buddies

Mother and Daughter, Gail and Becky
 The Growing Up Years
Gail deserves a lot of credit for going it alone, 
struggling and raising such a beautiful girl.  

 Becky had lots of wonderful qualities.  Aside from her spirituality she was very bright, loved art and was a gifted photographer.  She was witty and fun to be with and she had an infectious smile and laugh.  No one on earth made better frosted sugar cookies at Christmas than Becky.  She was so resilient and such a great example of making the best out of her life.    She and Jennifer had a great time attending their last two years of high school together.  It was a blessing that they were together.   Once Gail took them to Hawaii when they were teens and this became an epic memory for all concerned.  She loved learning and Cal Poly is her alma mater.  She met her husband, Michael, there at college and they had a beautiful wedding and a good solid marriage and sweet little family. 

Their son, Thomas, was the apple of her eye and she struggled hard in her last year to raise him well.  Towards the end of her life when it became apparent that her days were short and the cancer had come back full force, we witnessed such a strong faith in her and love for her Savior and acceptance of God's will for her life.  

One cannot imagine what kind of faith and courage that would take at 26, as she faced leaving her sweet husband and tiny son for a long time.  She was not bitter and resentful, she had struggled through it and made peace with it before she left us.  She was valiant and true and a wonderful example to all who knew her.  If she could see her son now (and I believe that she can) she would be most pleased.  He has become a very enchanting young man.  His dad has done a phenomenal job a raising him up.  He is planning for college now and has a brilliant future ahead of him. In this I know she rests in peace.

 Becky's Memory Lives on in Jen's Daughter

Miss Rebecca Piper

She even looks like her!

When Jennifer and Lowell had their first daughter, she was named her after her mom's beloved cousin and best friend. Although she is called Piper, she will point out quite often that her real name is Rebecca!  She is a lot like her namesake actually.  Beautiful and poised, mature beyond her years and very artistic.  They both were blessed with a creative style of their own.  Piper at 13 is sweet and well-loved just like her first cousin, once removed.  Miss Rebecca Gail and Miss Rebecca Piper have much in common and she has brought honor to her name.

We will always love and honor your memory, Becky!

You are missed and remembered with ardent affection 

by all of your family.

Rebecca Gail Mattson was born

December 7, 1971

in Walnut Creek, California 

She died on

February 22, 1998

in Concord, California

where she lived most of her life.

 She is buried in

Oakmont  Memorial Park

in

Lafayette, California

Jennifer's Girls and Rebecca's Thomas
Piper (on the right) is named after Rebecca.
They are all growing up too fast!
Easter 2013

Reflections from 2005 ~ Piper

Recently while cuddling in bed with our six-year-old granddaughter, Piper, she asked me what life was like when I was a little girl. It made me reflect on how my life is suddenly seeming long to me.

Looking back made me keenly aware of the changes that have taken place within me and the world I call my own. Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s was a cake walk compared to today and yet it was laced with trials and tribulations, excitement and great joy, hard work and fun times too. It was filled with love and learning, family, the perplexities of life and a boat load of boring days too.

Each era seems to have a unique way of molding and shaping us into who we are destined and desirous to become. One thing that has become apparent over the fifty something years I have lived is that each of us continues to learn, grow and change all of our lives. I am beginning to realize more and more that the essence of who we are also remains somewhat the same while our environment and our experiences create and hone the facets of each diamond in the rough.

As I thought about how my life was different than Piper’s as a little girl, I saw clearly that the changes are just as dramatic as those experienced by my grandparents and me. She was flabbergasted to know that when I was six we had just gotten our first black and white television. There were no microwaves, cell phones, Barbie Dolls, computers, video games, VCRs, DVDs, CDs, I-Pods, Palm Pilots, Videos, Air-conditioning in homes or cars, no electric hair dryers for home use, no fast food, and no huge abundant birthdays and Christmases.

She could not comprehend only having three or four dresses to wear to school and church and a few play clothes. I can still remember that in the fifth grade I had a blue dress with a drop waist and a rhinestone pin (perhaps the beginning of my fascination with bedazzlement) and a red plaid dress and that one week I would wear one of them three times and the next week two times. She didn’t comprehend why as a girl I could never wear pants to school, or that we washed our hair only once a week and went to bed with wet pin curls to have curly fluffy hair for church on Sundays. We didn’t have Wal*Mart and we didn’t just go shopping for stuff as entertainment. If we ever went out to dinner it was a very special occasion, not the twice weekly trip out the kids are use to these days. Dessert was also a very special treat, not a twice daily occurrence more as it can be today.  There was no such thing a junk food. 

When I was her age the dentists did not believe in using Novocaine on children and I can still remember the pain and terror of having my teeth, that were untreated by fluoride, drilled and filled. Life was more painful and less painful at times than today. It was harder in some ways because we didn’t have so many of the modern conveniences we now enjoy, but less complex because life was less complicated and less stressful. We didn’t have so many choices to make for every little thing.

Sometimes I find myself yearning for those days when I go to buy diapers, or ice cream or a cold remedy and have to filter through 80 choices. We didn’t have to read the labels on food to make sure we could recognize anything that was actually contained in the package as edible. In those days we could walk to the store alone or with a small friend and not fear pedophiles or kidnappers to the degree we do today. We didn’t need our own swimming pool, playing in the sprinkler was just great.

Ironically, with all the differences in our worlds of growing up, the essence of that little girl I held in my arms was not that different from me at her age. We both were sweet and innocent, had a longing to be pretty and feminine and to feel loved. We both wanted the attention of our parents, our grandparents and our teachers and friends. We both had a deep and inborn longing to one day meet Prince Charming and have a little family of our own. We both had an abundance of goodness within our hearts and a desire to please.

We were both the firstborn in our family and ladened with the responsibility to be a good example to our siblings. Sometimes we relished that and other times it was a burden we didn’t care to bear. Somehow, we accepted and carried out the role as best we could.

Somehow that role of the firstborn carries on for a life time. Piper is doing an excellent job. She is great with Julia and almost like a little mother to her baby sister, Chloe. She is sensitive and wants everyone to play by the rules. I am the same and it has hurt my heart a lot to know that people sometimes don’t care in the least bit how I feel nor do they live by the rules. People often just make up their own rules as they go along and fair or right has little to do with it. I hope that as Piper grows those painful learning experiences will be gentle on her kind and tender heart.

Piper loves being a girl. The pinker and frillier and more sparkle something has the better she likes it. She is my girl! She loves to dress up and have fairy dust on her little arms and to feel like the true Princess she is. I hope that as she grows she will continue to enjoy her femininity and that she will learn to love her body and enjoy it. I pray she never falls into the body image trappings of society like thinking she is too tall, too big, too white, too anything that causes her distress and makes her feel awkward or different or less beautiful than she is. I hope that a good and healthy self-concept just grows within her naturally and that she doesn’t struggle with it like so many do. I have not grown up with the luxury of that blessing. From my era I don’t think many girls have. I hope Piper’s generation is smarter.

Somehow, I saw in her hope for a bright future. She has a wonderful faith in the temple and a great desire to marry there one day. When she was tiny and didn’t quite understand marriage, she cried because she could not go right in and marry me in the temple one day as we were strolling by it. I tried to explain our sealing but I think it went over her little head then.

I hope that she can marry a man as wonderful as her Daddy and her Grandpas and that she can know the joy in her own family that I have had. I hope that her husband will cherish her and help her and love her as much as she deserves. Not because she will be perfect, but because she has a pure heart. That is just something you can see in a little girl’s eyes when you hold them close and snuggle up with them in the morning.

The joy that I felt when looking at her made me realize that one of the blessing of grand-parenthood is that there is a bit of ourselves that has the chance to vicariously do things over again. The mistakes I have made do not have to be hers, if I can teach her and share my cache of experiences and wisdom somehow. As my heart is turned to her I hope that hers will also be turned to me as she grows up. The more chances I have to cuddle up with her in the mornings now the better the outcome will be later. Those precious moments bond us together one little snuggle at a time.

It is so much fun to post various memories of our family and other special people.   Those that are very much alive and those who have passed beyond this life will be celebrated here with photos, videos, special stories and mini-bios of those who have passed beyond this life.

This blog will comprise a variety of memories, stories, old journal entries, mini-bios, photos, and other things regarding the most important people to have touched our lives.

 It is all about celebrating Once Upon Another Time with those we love.   It is all about our ancestors, our posterity, and maybe even some of our precious friends that have touched our lives with wonderful love and experiences.  They seem to pass effortlessly from treasured friends to adopted family.  The posts are placed in this blog in random order.  If the person is deceased I will put the vital stats at the end of their post.