Lilly Yvonne Jorissen

Mom referred to herself as Lil, not Lilly. She was all about common sense, hard work and achieving. She was smart and very capable. I asked her if she ever sat on her mother's lap and she told me her mother had no lap because she was always working. That was mom too. She didn't have a lap either. She loved to work.

She also loved to play. She bowled for 50 years. Monday was her day off from being a grocery store clerk so she'd clean house all day and bowl that night with her team.

She and my dad loved to dance and did so very well. They were very smooth together. All of us kids loved to dance too, but to rock and roll rather than Western tunes. My brother and I had a dance floor all to ourselves once and we were all over it. What fun!

Mom lost her 4th child, Marlene, to a car accident in Nov. 1977. She lost dad in March of 1979. That was a rough time for her but she came through it, remarried and started traveling.

Mom also had a great sense of humor! We'd be in the kitchen watching her cook dinner, sitting on counters, and laughing with her. She once broke an egg over my brother's head for fun and we were all so surprised she actually did that! She told us our dad was fun too but that did not show up as much as mom's on an every day basis. She had a lot of friends and they meant a lot to her.