Recently we laid to rest my Grandma.  One of the greatest women of influence in my life. Her love and respect for all us kids, blood related or not, was unmatched. All the little things she did for us , from bandaging a boo-boo , to straightening out a mistake, all done with love.  During her service the Reverend asked us to share memories of our  life with her. I was unable to at that point in time, so here goes.

         The things I remember the most was Love, unconditional and unrequited love. I remember the weekends at the house where music always played. The Euchre tournaments, her voice singing with us all. Her mandolin above the guitars, just strumming along. I miss the " Jay Mitchell ". ( had a few of those ).  The cook outs , the hugs and kisses, ( those were the best). The stern looks with those eyes that pierced right through to your soul. Homemade Rhubarb pie, my favorite. Fresh baked cookies, Spanish rice yummmm.

          Tutoring for the love of it. Helping in the yard , camping, fishing,  swimming and so on. These memories are mine forever, I share them with you all because she would expect nothing less. Also because you all can relate to every word I just typed. I'm  no novelist I know this , but I just can't seem to get the words just right in spoken language.

          All these and more I would gladly trade for just ; one more Rhubarb pie , one more hug , one more kiss, one more sing along. A game of Euchre,  a " Jay Mitchell ! " , all for one simple thing..... just one gloriously day with my Grandma. I miss you every day , I love you ,see u soon. 

Written in honor of Nonnie by another great grandaughter, Shalynn Mellerup who read it at the funeral.

This was written and read by Lexie Saxon one of her great grand daughters at the funeral

My great grandmother was an amazing woman. She gave to her friends and family selflessly. My Nonnie was a force of nature. She was strong and brave and smart. She gave me so many things. My Nonnie gave me courage. She taught me that fear was healthy, but not to let it hold me back. My Nonnie gave strength. She took no nonsense from anyone. I want to be just like her. My Nonnie gave me family. She would sit for hours and tell me stories and show me pictures. My Nonnie was the best teacher. She taught me how to tie my shoes, how to multiply, long division and fractions. She taught me how to make amazing food with no recipe. She taught me how to love unconditionally. No matter how many people, and family, siblings, cousins were there. I knew she'd always have time for me. She was always just a phone call away. And always ready with a kind word and a pot of tea. She was the kind of person you felt better for having known. And she will be severely missed.
We love you Nonnie.
Written by Danielle Smith 

Mom was very human- was subject to the same weaknesses as all of us. Perhaps that helped make her so approachable. She was a worrier, but could be very fearful, as we also can be.  But when one understood or knew, as we can only beginning to know what it was like for her to go through what she did, we have admire her strengths so much more.  God, who says He will forget our sins when we come to believe and obey Him, looks to our and to Mom’s potential and how He can use us.                                                                        

We want to do just that as we share some memories with you.

Mom was a survivor, a caretaker, a teacher.   A product of the depression and a divorce, she learned that family and friends were what was important and the key to survival and contentment.  She found her purpose in life there. Even from an early age she was caring for people.  You will see many pictures of her with a baby in her arms.  She and her sisters and Mother had a very close bond that survived and grew even through adulthood and included their families.  She knew to be thrifty and the depression produced in her habits of hard work , concern for the many hundred of relatives, blood and adopted, who graced our homes and often shared in our lives as she nurtured them.                                

Mom was a doer.  She hated being idle, and would busy herself even when she had to rest with things to keep her mind active- drawing, crocheting, Bible reading.  She was an avid reader and many shared in keeping her in books. Mom was a strong and gracious person.  She learned to endure hardness with a graciousness and a lack of complaining.   Even in pain, she would endure without complaining a lot.    She was always concerned about how she appeared to people,  even as she neared the end, and people thought she was not “with it”, when she was calling out to Elsie and Russell (sister and brother)  and we talked with her about what she was doing and why. She explained she was asking Elsie and Russell to intervene with God to bring her home sooner.  When we explained how others interpreted this behavior, she really worked hard at not doing so, but to pray silently, so that people would not think she was crazy.  She tried not to make things harder for all of us and felt badly that we that we had to help her so much, even though we did so out of love for her. She was gracious often to others. Always willing to listen (and to give advice) . Even when she did not feel good, she would attempt to be there for others in whatever way she could.  Even after the stroke, when so much of her memory was robbed, her character shined through.  She worked hard at recovering what memory she could and then in a very gracious manner would cover up what she did not remember so that others would not be burdened with her problem.  We loved listening to her after her stroke, at tea time which she continued to try to maintain, especially with old friends as Dick Ruby.  She would brighten at his approach, guide the tea set up, and come out and sit with us.  She would then ask Dick gracious questions: how are you, what have you been doing today, how is the family?   Thanks Dick for patiently answering her again when she would repeat herself. Mom was a nurturer, and a teacher. She was especially good with children.  And she babysat a lot and helped raise them- many of you have had personal experience with this area- and these people still love and maintain a relationship with her. Looking forward to the time we will see her again.  One would often find her working with homework, or drilling the children on their skills. Or doing puzzles, or playing games with them, teaching them life values, such as  cooperation and following the rules as she played with them.  She taught adults how to care for their children. She worked with Alexis, for example, on learning how to draw.  And a lot of others.  I appreciated her patience in trying to teach me how to crochet for 30 years, at which time it was a mutual decision that I did not have the crochet gene and we would work with learning how to grow flowers.  I still have,  and use her whole wheat bread recipe, and often would bring her a sample of what she inspired.  Mom had a very strong moral code and faith that she worked hard at trying to live by.  I think we may all have felt the brunt of her correction in this area but she was quite often very right in what she corrected us. Her moral code , which she tried to base on the Bible, is one that through experience we have come to see can work for a happier and more contented life. She gave and tried to help wherever she could. She read her Bible daily.  She tried hard not to say anything bad about anyone, although sometimes her frustration almost gave way. This does not mean that she would not share her opinions with you.  Ask the hospice social worker: “Ann, honey, it isn’t wrong to die your hair, but did you have to die it that color?  And when the social worker showed up with her hair teased, she reminded her that brushing her hair would be a good thing to do.  Thanks Ann for your sense of humor and graciousness. Mom knew contentment and how to enjoy herself.  She often did this with her extended family. She learned to play mandolin and guitar.  She and Dad and many of the relatives would gather every weekend to play and sing into the wee hours of the morning.  And I’ve seen pictures of them dancing also and being silly at times. And then there were often hours of contentment when she and Dad and other relatives would go fishing.  She enjoyed the fishing and out of love for dad, she would cook them.  But, eating them was a different story.  I am afraid that Dad and Steve would get cans of sardines and crackers and eat them in her presence just to hear her groan. Mom enjoyed 92 years of life- a full and fulfilling life in her words.  We could go on and on and share many memories of this lady and we hope you will share your memories of her and her many strengths as we grieve her loss.  But we ask to you look forward. She sleeps now but the time is coming when we will see her again and be able to talk, walk, work and play with her. A time when she will no longer be in pain and a time when she will be surrounded by you, her friends and loved one. Thank you. Written By Margaret St. Charles

Juanita Ruth (Stevens) St.Charles, Nita, or as most of us knew her, Mom, Grama, or Nonnie, was part of the ‘GREATEST GENERATION.’  She grew up with 3 brothers and 5 sisters during the great depression and started her family at the beginning of WWII.  During the war, while Dad was in the army, she worked in a defense plant, as most of the young women did then.  She turned to family, Dad’s grandparents to baby sit Jerry and me.

Yes, life was hard for Mom growing up and it was hard the last five years as the pain from her arthritis became harder to control and she became more and more feeble.  Not being able to do things was very discouraging to her.  But those hardships never diminished the strengths that defined her or her many loves in life.

Mom loved many things.  She loved her gardens and her flowers.  She loved them enough to teach Jerry and me to pull weeds before we were old enough to ride a bike.  ‘Weed two rows and then you can go play.’  She loved them enough to insist last summer that we let her take her walker out to her garden.  She not only supervised what we did, but, she leaned over the walker and pulled weeds.

Mom loved birds.  She watched and fed them for years.  She knew within a day or two when each of the migratory birds would return.  She knew many of the individual birds that visited her feeders or nesting boxes by their markings or personalities.

Mom loved music.  There was always music at home.  She didn’t just listen.  She played it, sang it, and danced to it.  For years we would gather every week end with aunts, uncles and cousins at my grandparents and sing and dance and be family from Friday through Sunday.  Later, it seemed that where ever we got together, we played music and sang.

Mom loved art.  She drew pictures from the time she was a little girl.  Even this last year, when her vision was getting worse and her hands shook, she still got out her pencils and drew.

Mom loved to knit and crochet.  She made beautiful doll dresses, baby cloths, afgans and something which most of the young probably never heard of; doilies.  She had doilies under everything on every flat surface.

Yes Mom loved art, crafts, music, birds and flowers and more (who could forget her cookies and pies, or cottage cheese dumplings?).  Those who knew her, even slightly, know all this and we know that she did not love them as an observer, but as a doer.  She was always deeply involved, always busy. 

But, there was something else that Mom loved even more than all these things.  She loved people.  She loved us. We all knew that because her love was not that of an observer, but a doer.  She had a sincere deep concern for all of us.  She expressed her love for us in the things she did for us and with us. 

She didn’t make cookies and pies for herself, but for us.  I was told more than once, ‘Leave that lemon pie alone; it’s Jerry’s.  Your butterscotch pie is in the frig.’
She did not just love to draw, she loved to teach us.  I know there are a number of us here that she taught and encouraged to draw.   She wanted us to share a love that enriched her life.  It was the same for all her personal loves.  She taught us to love the birds, to play the guitar, to sing, to bake and I could go on all day.  To some here, she opened her home when you needed a place to stay, or to heal.  To even more, she opened her heart and life, to encourage and guide, and yes, to sometimes bluntly correct. 

We were all her family and she wanted the best for each one of us.  Often, in the last year when I was alone with her, she would talk about different ones of you to me.  She knew that I would never repeat what she confided to me.  She would tell me how she worried about you and what she wished you would do.  Although I’m not sure she realized it, is always came back to what she tried to teach and share with us; the love she had for the simple things of life and the love for people.  Even a couple of weeks ago when she could do nothing for herself, she told me that she still prayed for many of us.

When I started to put this tribute together, I realized that each of us who knew her is part of her eulogy.  We are each a part of her legacy.        When we share the things she taught us to love, when we try to live the things she tried to tell us would make our life better, we are honoring her.                                                   When we share our memories of her, we encourage each other, and that is something she would want us to do.
That is the best way to remember and honor her.
Given By Stephen St. Charles