- previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- | single page
|
Betty Dunn was 17 in this photo taken in 1948. (Submitted photo / January 12, 2013) |
Bob remembers coming back to visit from California when his three children were young. The children couldn’t seem to find the light switch without getting their hands all over the wall.
The next time Bob’s family visited, Betty had taped paper towels around the light switches, but to no avail.
Denise said after her mother would vacuum a room, she’d ask them not to walk on it for a while to keep it free of footprints. Just to annoy Betty, one of her sons would put his fingerprints all over the newly cleaned refrigerator exterior.
“We carried on a lot and aggravated Mom,” Denise said. “We’ve always been a jokester group of people.”
Betty was not a big shopper, having grown up with only the necessities. She didn’t like clutter and took good care of what she had.
“She kept a clean house. She kept us in line,” Denise said. “We knew who ruled the roost, in a good way.”
Betty was on the verge of her third heart attack when she landed in the hospital for a triple bypass in January 2008. Although the surgery slowed her down a bit, she “danced her little heart out” at the March 2008 wedding in North Carolina of one of her granddaughters, Denise said.
At her doctor’s prompting, Betty quit smoking after more than 40 years.
She lived almost a year after her lung cancer diagnosis in late January 2012. Ed said her doctor said her cancer was the kind nonsmokers get.
Despite the toll that radiation treatments were taking on Betty, she was able to stay in her home with the help of Denise and Ed and occasional outside help.
“One of the things she worried about going through lung cancer was she didn’t want to be a burden on her kids,” Bob said.
“She wanted to stay at home,” Ed said.
Her children cared for her in appreciation for all she had done for them.
“She was just a very compassionate, passionate woman,” Bob said.
Editor’s note: Each Sunday, The Herald-Mail runs “A Life Remembered.” Each story in this continuing series takes a look back — through the eyes of family, friends, co-workers and others — at a member of the community who died recently. Today’s “A Life Remembered” is about Betty Jane Rockwell, who died Jan. 5 at the age of 81. Her obituary was published in the Jan. 6 edition of The Herald-Mail.
The next time Bob’s family visited, Betty had taped paper towels around the light switches, but to no avail.
Denise said after her mother would vacuum a room, she’d ask them not to walk on it for a while to keep it free of footprints. Just to annoy Betty, one of her sons would put his fingerprints all over the newly cleaned refrigerator exterior.
“We carried on a lot and aggravated Mom,” Denise said. “We’ve always been a jokester group of people.”
Betty was not a big shopper, having grown up with only the necessities. She didn’t like clutter and took good care of what she had.
“She kept a clean house. She kept us in line,” Denise said. “We knew who ruled the roost, in a good way.”
Betty was on the verge of her third heart attack when she landed in the hospital for a triple bypass in January 2008. Although the surgery slowed her down a bit, she “danced her little heart out” at the March 2008 wedding in North Carolina of one of her granddaughters, Denise said.
At her doctor’s prompting, Betty quit smoking after more than 40 years.
She lived almost a year after her lung cancer diagnosis in late January 2012. Ed said her doctor said her cancer was the kind nonsmokers get.
Despite the toll that radiation treatments were taking on Betty, she was able to stay in her home with the help of Denise and Ed and occasional outside help.
“One of the things she worried about going through lung cancer was she didn’t want to be a burden on her kids,” Bob said.
“She wanted to stay at home,” Ed said.
Her children cared for her in appreciation for all she had done for them.
“She was just a very compassionate, passionate woman,” Bob said.
Editor’s note: Each Sunday, The Herald-Mail runs “A Life Remembered.” Each story in this continuing series takes a look back — through the eyes of family, friends, co-workers and others — at a member of the community who died recently. Today’s “A Life Remembered” is about Betty Jane Rockwell, who died Jan. 5 at the age of 81. Her obituary was published in the Jan. 6 edition of The Herald-Mail.