Afterwards my Mom and Dad and my Aunt Susie and Uncle Kevin (my Aunts siblings and their spouses) also went to say their goodbyes one last time. Again a tender moment was captured.
After closing the casket, all of us who were family were then led into the chapel where everyone was standing and we were all seated in the first 3 or so rows. They then began the meeting with a beautiful prayer by my cousin Fawn (my aunts eldest daughter and my favorite cousin growing up) and then my cousins Forest, Flint, and Feild all spoke about their mothers life. Everything was done so well and beautifully complete with lovely music, great tributes to my Aunt Julie and touching prayers.
Below I have included the Eulogy my cousin Forest gave at the funeral that describes my Aunts life. She truly was a remarkable woman and I so loved hearing more about the intimate details of her life. She surely was a source of good in her life, and was a wonderful mother, friend, and disciple of Jesus Christ.
“My mother, Julie Ruth, was born August 26th, 1952, the second child and first daughter of Jack and Millie Harrison. Mom’s family eventually would include her older brother, Randy, her younger brother, Dennis, and her littlest sister, Susie. My mother’s mother loved her dearly and because Randy was old enough to occupy himself, my grandmother was known to spend hours rocking her precious baby daughter. All of Grandma Millie’s children felt a deep connection and love from their mother.
Mom was also blessed with an especially rich association with her father’s mother, her Grandma Lola. Grandma Lola was fun, loving, and devoted to her grandchildren. One of the hallmarks of my mother’s life, her devotion and deep love for her own children and grandchildren was no doubt nurtured by the tender care she received herself from the women in her life. I’ll quote from a letter Mom wrote me on my mission, regarding Grandma Lola, “She has been the best grandma a child could dream of. I have taken grandma lessons from her & am hoping to [be] the best grandma your children would ever want.”
Julie grew up a dark-haired girl with pretty olive skin, in Norwalk, California. About the time she was 9 years old she made friends there in the neighborhood with Cheryl Lewis. Cheryl would end up being a life-long, close friend of Mom. While they didn’t always live near each other, they always kept in touch. They would find occassions to spend a day with each other on one of their birthdays. Back in Norwalk as a young girl, Julie’s mother would give her some money to spend. She and Cheryl would head down to Norwalk Square and Mom became acquainted with another life-long friend…Dr. Pepper.
Uncle Randy, Mom’s older brother used to tease her and Cheryl. He branded them the “Lee Sisters: Homely and Ugly”. Cheryl and Mom used to argue about who got to be the “Homely” one. They knew what “ugly” meant but were not quite old enough to appreciate that “homely” wasn’t much better.
In a sign of providence, too unlikely to be coincidence, Mom’s and her friend Cheryl passed to the other side within one week of each other at the early age of 61. Cheryl contracted mesothelioma and had detiorated over the last several months. Dad drove Mom a distance of more than 100 miles to visit Cheryl on New Year’s Day. Mom wasn’t feeling well but knew her friend’s days were numbered. Days after Mom’s visit Cheryl passed. Mom entered Presbyterian Hospital three days after the visit, less than two weeks ago. Both our families envision their sweet association in the hereafter.
Mom’s family took lots of trips. They camped at Yellowstone and Death Valley among other vacations. Grandma Millie’s roots were in Bountiful, Utah, and it was typical for her to take her children there for weeks during the summer, many times on the train. Mom enjoyed spending time there, eating cherries from her Aunt Fran’s cherry trees and being with her relatives. On these long trips Mom invented a game to play with her little sister Susie to pass the time. Mom would turn her to hands into two characters named “Kissy” and “Pinchy.” “Kissy” would nestled up to little Aunt Susie and she would respond with real affection. To this day, my Aunt Susie still remembers the fondness she felt for
“Kissy.” Enter the other hand “Pinchy”. Now you might be thinking that Pinchy would pinch my Aunt Susie, but you would be mistaken. Pinchy wouldn’t pinch Aunt Susie, Pinchy would pinch Kissy. Aunt Susie would leap to the defense of Kissy and in my aunt’s own words, “Beat the snot out of Pinchy.”
Mom attended Santa Fe High and enjoyed the fact that I have worked there at her alma mater for the last 10 years. It brings a smile to my face that I walk the halls that my mother walked as a teenager. Mom took photography in what would become first classroom, more than 30 years later. Mom was an outgoing, fun, attractive girl and attended many school dances.
The summer after her high school graduation in 1970, Julie’s family moved from Norwalk to the east side of Whittier near what was then Monte Vista High School. Like Grandma Millie had done at their home in Norwalk, she turned the yard at the house on Trumball into a veritable paradise of fruit trees, flowers, and manicured landscaping. Mom developed a love of flowers from Grandma Millie, a love that she passed on to her daughter Fawn. Fawn learned the names of flowers and an appreciation for their beauty from Mom. Cultivating the yard at her homes has become a source of pleasure for my Fawn.
During that same summer, Julie met Joseph Ferkin. Joe was also just recently graduated from high school, nearby CalHi, and both had obtained summer work at the Sears that used to be located near Telegraph and Carmenita. During Dad’s last week of work at the department store that summer, he noticed Julie as she was getting her picture taken as part of the process of becoming a new employee. On their first date Mom and Dad saw Woodstock at the movies. Dad was attracted to Mom’s outward beauty but an early date found them talking for hours on the grounds of Granada Middle School. It was then that he began to understand the beauties of Julie’s heart: that she loved her Heavenly Father and her deep desire to be a mother. Joe and Julie’s eventual union had its share of struggles through the years. Mom and Dad seemed to have very little in the way of common interests. However,the one over-riding priority the two shared was their desire to have, love, and raise their children. And each of us, their children, give our testimony that God blessed our lives when he sent us to be born and raised in their home.
Less than two years later, Dad would find himself drafted into the United States Army as part of the Vietnam War. On his first leave from the Army, Dad drove Mom up into Turnbull Canyon and proposed marriage. Mom said yes. Joe and Julie were married November 4th, 1972 by Mom’s uncle Ken Minnix, who was serving as a bishop. Their wedding took place here in this room.
A little more than a year later, I was born. Mom frequently called the day of my birth, “the happiest day of her life.” Her life as a mother had begun. Fawn came in 1978, Field came in 1980, Flint came in 1982, and Freesia came in 1988. Five children; three boys and two girls.
Julie was born to be a mother and relished it. She nursed all of her babies, some longer than others (that is an inside joke). Dad’s hard work and ability to provide allowed mom to realize her desire to be
at home to raise her children. One of my mother’s greatest gifts was her ability to love deeply and that love sunk deepest into her children.
Mom made special occassions special. For our birthdays Mom would make the dinner that we requested. She gave thoughtful gifts. She made cakes and decorated them herself. One year I had a Cylon Warrior cake from Battle Star Galactica, for Flint’s first birthday she decorated a teddy bear cake. During summer, Mom would regularly take us to the beach, sometimes more than once a week.
We went on vacations as a whole family many times but sometimes we took trips just with Mom. We had trips to Utah to visit our Harrison cousins and grandparents. It was fun to be on vacation with Mom. At one point Mom was introduced to staying in Yosemite at the Housekeeping campground. She had a great love for the beauty of Yosemite and camped with her children and friends there in the valley year after year. Yosemite was one of her favorite places on Earth.
Another one of Mom’s unique gifts was her ability to be a friend. Julie made deep and lasting friendships wherever she went. Mom cherished the women with whom she shared friendships and stayed connected to them even after they became separated when one would move. Mom liked to talk, but she was also a good listener. Field commented the other day, that Mom was the kind of friend anyone would want to have. Mom even helped two of her friends as they approached the end of their battles with cancer. Mom had special experiences helping with the care of Sister Ina Moore from the Passons Ward and Sister Charlene Perry from here in the Colima Ward and was part of the rotation of bedside help for both of them.
From her early years Mom gained a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and was a committed and active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. By herself Mom took her growing brood of children to church. We first attended our ward that met on Passons in Pico Rivera. Mom served faithfully many years in Primary, teaching and caring for children. Mom’s commitment to the gospel influenced many but especially her children. We all know that Mom lived the gospel because she believed it.
In 1992 our family bought and moved into her parents home on Trumball. We then became members of the Colima Ward. During her time in Colima Ward, Mom had many callings. One assignment she had here in the ward gained particular notoriety with the children of the ward. On a monthly basis, Julie would wear a blue dress with an apron decorated with the “primary” colors of red, yellow, and blue, and assume the personage of “Sister Friendly.” She would enter the junior chapel and share a story from the “Friend,” the Church’s magazine for children.
Later Mom served the ward and especially the women of the ward as Relief Society President. I still remember her telling me how she felt a special endowment of love for the sisters of the ward as she assumed that position of leadership.
In 2005, one of Mom’s life aspirations was fulfilled with the birth of her first grandchild, Owen, Fawn and David’s firstborn son. When she was 16 Mom would daydream about the time when she would be a grandmother, loading up a large Cadillac with numerous, young granchildren, all eating ice cream cones and having a great time in the back seat as they would drive along. Mom told us about this daydream many times, and even she thought it was funny that as a 16 year old she dreamt of being a grandmother. Mom was a wonderful support to her children as they brought her grandchildren into the world. I still remember the delicious meal Mom cooked Paige and I in our apartment on Leffingwell when we brought Emily home from the hospital.
Mom and Dad now have 12 grandchildren, as you can see in the program. 1 granddaughter, and 11 grandsons! Emily was the only grandchild that had a chance to see Grammie, as she liked to be called, after she entered the hospital and we had learned that she was not going to get better. On our way to the hospital, I asked Emily what she would miss about Grammie? “Grammie Days,” she responded. Mom would take a lone grandchild for a day filled with art projects and time together.
The only thing that interfered with Mom’s grandmotherhood was her declining health. As Mom arrived in her 40s she was plagued by several auto-immune diseases, including Lupus, and a rare disorder called Anti-PhosphoLipid Syndrome. The nature of the maladies caused them to be difficult to treat. Mom desired very much to be healed that she might enjoy life to the fullest. She exercised faith to be healed and sought medical help on numerous occassions. The last year of her life was bittersweet. Mom moved back in with Dad and the two spent one of the most harmonius years of their marriage together. Dad took great care of Mom and each of us children feel great appreciation fo the care he rendered. Dad regarded the last year as a gift from God that had healed their wounded relationship.
Because of her illnesses, Mom’s body tended to make clots and these clots damaged her liver. With a compromised liver her body retained fluid. In the last weeks of her life, Mom contracted pneumonia, and in her weakened condition, with several organs not functioning at full capacity, the infection overwhelmed her body and caused her death.
In one of her last conscious moments, the Sunday before last Mom was able to view pictures of her twelfth grandchild, Flint and Allison’s son Oliver, born earlier that morning. She clapped her hands for joy.
Advised of Mom’s failing condition, all of us had gathered by Tuesday afternoon and we spend the last days of Mom’s life comforting each other and preparing to let Mom go. We have felt embraced by our Heavenly Father and supported by the prayers and concern of our family and friends.
I would like finish with Mom’s own words, from a letter she wrote to me, while I was in the mission field…[read letter]. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”
After the funeral, the Whittier police department escorted all of us in attendance to the cemetery where Forest was able to offer the prayer to dedicate his mothers grave. Once again it was such a tender and beautiful prayer which touched all of our hearts. I was just left feeling so thankful for the life and legacy my Aunt left in my life and for the many precious moments I was able to spend with her both as a child and as an adult.
After the funeral and graveside service, the Harrison side of the family (my Mom & Dad, and all my siblings and I) met up with my Uncle Joe and Aunt Nellie at the grave site of my dear Nana and Papa (which was in the same cemetery). I had actually never been to their graves before considering I was on my mission when my Nana passed away, and my Papa’s funeral was held in Utah. So it was nice to see where they were laid to rest.
The kids and I picked up some beautiful red and pink roses to put on their graves, and I gave each of the kids one of each color that they could leave on my Nana and Papa’s graves. They really enjoyed doing this and afterwards also went and picked little daisy looking flowers that were growing in the grass to also leave for them. It was so cute.
After visiting Nana and Papa’s graves, we all headed back to my Aunts church in Whittier, where the Relief Society sisters had put on a wonderful luncheon for us all. They served us salad and pasta with rolls and drinks and then had yummy cakes and cookies for dessert. I was able to meet several of my Aunts best friends in the ward at the luncheon and heard wonderful stories from both of them. One of them was my Aunts Disneyland buddy, and had gone with her every Monday until she got sick, and the other was Nancy, my Aunts friend who had actually stayed with us for a little while she and my Aunt Julie were doing temple tours in Utah back when I as in HS. It was so fun to reminisce with them both and get to know them better.
I was also able to meet my Dad’s cousin Buddy Harrison as well and hear about his life and then I enjoyed visiting with my my Dad’s Uncle Bud and Aunt, as well as my Dads Aunt Joann, and several of my Dad’s cousins as well. I especially enjoyed catching up a little more with some of my own cousins and I just came away from the day feeling so very blessed to belong to such a wonderful family (on both sides). I truly have been so blessed.
To my Aunt Julie who passed away.. We love you and are so grateful you have been a part of our lives. Your life has been a testimony to us all of one who truly loved Christ and was focused on him. Your love of motherhood and your children was beautiful and has left me wanting to do better to appreciate every moment I have with my own children. We are all better people because you were in our lives. God be with you until we meet again. We love you so much!