Obituary of Joan Harvey Monroe

Remembering MomShe was a daughter, sister, RN, wife, mother, even an author.Somewhere in my head there is a file cabinet, old and battered, where I keep pictures and videos of my life. It's handy and I can pull up pictures I want to see again and again. Do you have a file cabinet too? I sure hope you do. I want to share some of my memory pictures with you.When I was really little (3 or 4) I have a video of my Mom in my memory. She was wearing her old red pedal pushers, her long blonde hair tied up in a scarf. It was summer and I was playing in the sand box outside. Mom called me inside for lunch.I remember when my oldest brother and I had chicken pox at Easter. Someone got us big pink Easter Bunny piggy banks. Mom carefully dabbed our itchy pokes with medicated lotion. The lotion was pink too. She told us over and over not to itch, we scratched anyway. She took really good care of us.When I was in 2nd grade we moved to a bigger very old, spooky house. The house was only two blocks from school, a mile or more from the hospital where Mom worked.My picture is of me meeting Mom as she walked home from work. I was older then, I'm guessing 10. It was hot, there was perspiration on her face. I was in shorts and she was wearing her uniform but not her nurses hat. I remember she took that off right after work and when she brought them home to wash, she starched the hat and stuck it to a mirror. Anyway, she was glad to see me and smiling she hugged me. We finished that walk together. Then things were very bad between Mom and Dad. No need to look at those pictures.When I was a senior in high school my family moved to Colorado for a new beginning. That didn't work. So Mom finished raising us on her own.I remember the house she bought in Arvada. When I was 19 or 20 I remember Mom asleep on the couch. She had worked all night and was trying to sleep on the couch to keep an eye or at least an ear on my youngest brother.I don't think we helped her enough.Then my grandfather died. Mom decided she would move back to Minnesota to be with her Mother.In Rochester, Mom met her high school sweetheart. She thought he had died in the war. She was so joyful! Dick and Mom married a couple of months later. Gone were her days of loneliness and just making ends meet. They moved back to Colorado and bought a home in Fort Collins.For almost thirty years they lived in that house, traveled, rode tandem bicycles and enjoyed themselves. Then old age and dementia stole that from them.Finally, they ended up in a group home in Seattle, close to Dick's son. Then Dick passed away and his son moved. Now Mom was really alone.Three weeks ago my daughter, Mae, my granddaughter, Jessica, and I went to Seattle and brought Mom back home.She wanted to spend the holidays with us. She was so thrilled to be able to do that. She finally figured out who I was, you have no idea how wonderful that was.Recent memories of Mom: We flew first class back to Denver. We got a snack in first class. Wine, cheese, crackers, fruit and a piece of chocolate. Mom drank and ate every bite. I had them make her a glass of ginger ale with a small amount of scotch. She drank all that too. Boy, howdy. She was very happy.She was lucid some days and able to communicate and some days not so much. Every day she told me she loved me very much. Thanks, Mom. I love you too.The picture on this is of Mom on May 28, Memorial Day, holding her great granddaughter, Lexi. Look at that smile. She was happy! We made Mom happy by bringing her home and surrounding her every day with children and love. Not a single day went by that one of us did not come for a visit. Not a single day went by without her smiling.There is a lesson here about the people you love, the memories you leave behind. Fill your old battered file cabinet with good memories. Great times. Don't bother taking out the bad ones. I will always remember Mom in her 20's in her red pedal pushers. For her children, please know that she asked about each of you. She loved you.A Wake will be held at Maegan's home.