Maria Doddema (McGinty) passed away on February 5, 2010. Her daughter, Holly McGinty Kling provides the eulogy below:
February 17, 2010
Dear Mom
Current mood: crushed
Category: Life
Dear Mom,
I’m certainly going to miss you. I can’t believe you’re really gone. You’ll always live in my heart and I’ll always have the memories. I will always have you in my life, you will be right beside me, even if I can’t see you. I consider myself to be a lucky woman, as I had your love for 55 years. Some daughters aren’t that fortunate to have that love or to have their mothers as long as I did. What gives me comfort is that you passed away knowing how much your two grown daughters loved you. You knew how much your only granddaughter loved you and how proud you were of her with her aspirations of being a nurse anestheist. I’m glad that we were all by your side so you wouldn’t be scared. Damn this is so difficult to write when tears are blurring my vision.
For those of you who didn’t know my mom, let me tell you a little about her life. More >
Yes, I’m behind. I have two or more articles, a few posts and corrections galore to add to the database. It’s been the most stressful time of my life.
Without going into too much detail, my oldest son was having some medical issues that required our full attention which meant the website took backseat during that time. I’m hoping in some future time, we’ll have enough people contributing that you won’t notice my absence. Back to the subject at hand, our son is doing better but still needs some help. It appears we finally found someone that will be able to meet his needs.
What’s that mean for DoddemaGen? I can finally get caught up. Believe me when I say this…it won’t be in one fell swoop. While coping with all the changes around here, I still have my own personal issues to deal with. The constant pain I live with seems to be increasing and my meds are just not able to keep up with it anymore. It is my goal to do some work to this site daily so I don’t fall too far behind.
Thanks for your patience!
Posted by Bernard in Events
2749 Meriwether
It’s spring. Flowers poking their heads out after a long winter’s sleep, trees budding, and the Doddema’s preparing to move yet again. It’s our way of deep cleaning.
There’s nothing wrong with the current house per se. It’s a beautiful 5 bedroom/3 bathroom and the landlord is exceptional. The exception: it’s very expensive. $1800 per month expensive.
We decided to search early as our lease was nearing its end and living in an university town, housing for our family size is a commodity. While many houses were available in our price range not all measured up to our normally low standards. A few of the places we looked at probably should have been completely renovated or torn down!
Then we found the ad. The place is perfect for our family. The view is amazing as the mountains are visible in every direction. There are some downsides such as all the bedrooms being on the second floor, unfenced yard and a super steep driveway. Looking on the bright side, the stairs are few! The kids barely stay in a fenced yard anyways and the driveway can be used during the winter as a giant sledding hill! Another positive is that this place will save us over $500/month!
The move is scheduled for this upcoming Saturday (18 April 2009). We’ve already talked to church members and should have enough manpower to help with everything. We get the keys on Tuesday and being as niave as we are….we plan on moving the boxes over and unpacking before the big day. Kara won’t have that following Monday off so having the kitchen fully functional is a must as well as the laundry room!
I would like to take this time to personally thank all those that helped to make this place a reality for us: Linda Peterson (Kara’s aunt), Nannie Stewart (my sister), Kathy Hammond (Kara’s mom) and Kristi Norton (Kara’s sister). THANK YOU!
For those of you that don’t come by that often our new address will be:
Bernard & Kara Doddema
2749 Meriwether
Missoula, MT 59803
I’ve taken some photos of the place before the move-in. I’ve always wanted to do the before and after shots. Here’s my chance. Click on photo below to be taken to the house images.
On 18 January 2009, Pieter Doddema, son of Pieter Doddema and Grietje Tonkens, passed away at age 62. I’m awaiting more information from his daughter Dievertje when she feels up to it. I don’t want to give too much detail without the families wishes.
I do want to say that Pieter Doddema was the one of the reasons that DoddemaGen got off the ground. He was one of the first Doddema’s that contacted me about our shared genealogy (Dievertje and I are 5th cousins). Within a day, my database grew by hundreds. I not only had names and dates but images of the records. He constantly was going to the archives to learn more about his ancestry, painstakingly translating records that were over a 100 years old.
He’s my genealogy hero and I’m sorry that he was taken from us so early in his life. My deepest condolences to his family. We grieve with thee.
I would like to welcome Emmett Kadwell to DoddemaGen. 21 hours ago he commented on one of his relatives, in fact, giving me more information than I had before. Thanks Emmett!
Emmett’s grandmother is Electa A. Richardson, who is the wife of the cousin of me 3 times removed (and yes, if you can tell from the wording that I copied it….you bet. That’s a mouthful!).
Welcome Emmett! If there’s anything you need, please contact me! If you see further items that you would like corrected, please post in the forum. One of the great features of this site is that you can start a blog post and have it continued in the forum! A wonderful way to get people to see all of DoddemaGen.
Have some good family stories about your grandmother? Pictures, etc. please feel free to share. I look forward to a great relationship.
(Note: source information about Electa Richardson to follow in next post)
