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Wilma Martinson Mikesell, 1973 |
The following biography, written by her daughter Jaime Mikesell Musgrove, was read by Elder Carl Winegar at Wilma's Memorial Service, August 6, 2002 at the Community of Christ, Woodburn, Oregon congregation
She was a tiny woman, with a big personality, and a stubborn streak in many areas, yet she often put the wants and needs of her family before her own. She grew up during the depression in Spokane, Washington, the daughter of a Norwegian immigrant father and a deeply religious mother. She learned excellent cooking skills by watching her mother and passed on the love and knowledge of family recipes to her children. She also loved word games, crossword puzzles and reading, all similar traits of her mother. Her dad worked for the Great Northern Railroad and was a carpenter and cabinetmaker, who built their home and much of their furniture. She learned to be frugal, and never waste a penny. She taught Mike and Jaime the same ideas about budgeting. She loved a bargain and could scrimp and save and yet live a life of comfort without any sign that she spent so wisely.
Wilma never liked driving a car, and although she usually blamed it on her eyesight, and poor "depth perception", she confided to Jaime once, that when she was young and trying to learn to drive, she lost control of the car once on a steep hill in Spokane, and coasted all the way in reverse down the hill, and being somewhat of an anxious person, this trauma lasted her the rest of her life and she was too scared to drive.
Wilma & Jim Mikesell, 1957
When she married her beloved husband, Jim, she followed him all over the state of Washington, living in a tiny trailer with no bathroom with a new baby and small boy, moving frequently as Jim traveled with crews, putting telephone wire up all around the West. She often talked about the positive aspects of this period and remembered how easy it was to potty-train the baby-all she had to do was put the potty chair in the front room of the trailer! The baby loved it. They didn't have much money and she would cut up her own clothes to make outfits and costumes for the kids for Christmas. They had cowboy outfits made out of a red coat she had, and Jaime had a nurse outfit made from an old bed sheet. She sewed shirts for Jim and Mike, and Jaime was always dressed in the cutest ruffled dresses, and play clothes, all the product of her nimble fingers.
They lived in Moses Lake, Washington when the kids were in grade school. By this time they had a lovely 10 X 50 ft. Rushmore Trailer which they were very proud of. They were very active in little league baseball as Jim coached and Mike played. All spring and summer for years, they had little league activities, Mike remembers them going to the Dairy Freeze for a bag of hamburgers one hot summer night and bringing them back to the game to eat. They had specially ordered one burger for Jaime with "just mustard" and that's how it came-no meat, just bread and mustard.
They would go on camping trips to the coast and to northwest wilderness areas. They camped in tents, and loved to go clam-digging on the coast-They would pack up the station wagon and take off on those hot, hot days in Central Washington and take off for the coast. Wilma always said it was freezing cold and wet on the coast as that was when the best clam digging was. They would dig buckets and buckets of clams with Mike helping, and then can them at the cannery there and bring them home for year-round clam chowder, one of her specialties. The only place she would willingly drive the car was up and down the beach during these camping trips.
In Moses Lake, the kids also remember weekly grocery and library trips. Since she could not drive and lived a short distance from town, she would do a weekly grocery trip. Every Friday night Jim would take her and the kids to the store and then to the library where everyone would check out an armload of books for the week. She loved to read about history, anthropology and archeology. She was friendly with the librarian and always bragged about the amount they all read. Even the librarian would comment during community talks about the Mikesell family trips to the library and the amount everyone read.
In Moses Lake, she once made grape juice for communion for her husband for the Church. She talked about it later, remembering how every bowl and every towel in the house turned purple. She also thought they would not want the juice as she called herself a "heathen" at times and wasn't sure it was pure enough. She was never baptized into the Church, but she was totally supportive of her husband and daughter in their beliefs and often called on the elders herself for support and administration.
She always loved to garden, and would accumulate plants and shrubs from friends and family and soon would have the most beautiful yard. She bragged about growing cucumbers on the compost pile, and having the most beautiful glads and roses. Every year she planted impatiens behind her house, with sharp cooking skewers sticking up all through them to keep the neighbor hood cats away. She always hated cats!
She loved to bake, and would start baking Christmas cookies in November. It was nothing for her to bake at least 30 kinds of cookies, and make cookie boxes to give away for all their friends and family. She was famous for her Christmas parties in Spokane, when all the family would come and she would give away dozens and dozens of cookies. She loved visiting with family and was truly a member of her own and Jim's extended family. She loved having them visit, and would talk for hours over the dinner table.
She and Jim loved to travel and camp and fish in their camper. They also traveled to California regularly to visit with her mother and sister. They took a long trip around the country when they first retired, and loved seeing the east coast and Florida. They sent home tapes to Jaime talking about their escapades, like Jim walking around the motor home, and Wilma looking out the window to warn him of an alligator next to the wheel. They had the most beautiful home at Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho, right on the lake, where they fished and boated daily for several years. They would catch many pounds of silver land-locked salmon and Jim would smoke it and give it away after their own freezer was full.
Wilma and Jim Mikesell, 1972
She had lived in Oregon City since around 1984. She and Jim had sold their Spokane home (and the snow shovel with it, as she refused to ever shovel snow again), and after living in Idaho a few years, Jim's health was not so good so she pushed for living closer to civilization. They moved nearby to Jaime's home and kept closer to town. She lived in her mobile home there longer than any other home she had had. After Jim passed away, she spent the last ten years living alone in her home, making many friends in her park. She loved to walk and would walk 3 or 4 miles every day around the park despite tripping over the bad roadway and breaking her arms 3 times, spraining an ankle, and earning herseff many bruises and stitches. She had a beautiful garden and a lovely collection of potted flowers on her deck. She loved weekly trips shopping on Saturday mornings with Jaime, although she didn't like to get up early to do so, and was tickled when it could be delayed to later in the day. She loved to watch television, and although she had a mental block about running any machinery other than a sewing machine or electric mixer, she could operate a video recorder better than most folks. It was not unusual for her to watch one program and tape two others at the same time, and she would save many of her favorite shows. She would get perturbed if someone telephoned her at night during a show, and trained Jaime to call on the hour and half-hour when the commercials would be on.
She looked forward to Mike and his family, or her in-laws, Wayne and Thelma Winters visiting her and would cook up a ham and potato salad and talk for hours. Everyone delighted in her stories, and she always had an opinion about everything. She and Jim traveled to be with Wayne during his bouts with heart surgeries, and Wayne and Thelma reciprocated by staying with Wilma when Jim was sick. During the last few months, they came again to be with her during her chemo and radiation therapies. They felt they had had a sign from God to do it, and loved her so much they could not refuse the opportunity. They drove her to all her daily appointments and helped around the house, and with her nutrition. She was so thankful for the care and love they gave to her.
Wilma was a humble lady with strong ethics and beliefs. She believed in encouraging education for her children and grandchildren, and supporting her husband in his career. She was honest and took pride in the success of others, knowing her support contributed to their success. She didn't ask for much from people and was an independent person. Even in the hospital she bragged about her lawyer son and nurse daughter. She tried her best to fight with a lot of encouragement from professionals, and from her family, but her body was not up to the struggle. Her family surrounded her as she entered into rest on Sunday, August 4, in her hospital bed. We will cherish our memories of her strive to live up to her expectations in our own lives.
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