Helen Ruth Yokum Olson

Shortly after Patrick and I got married, we headed up to Oroville to visit his side of the family. We stopped off at Grandma Olson's house to visit. Being quite new to the family, I wasn't totally comfortable around everyone. I decided that I needed to just be myself and get comfortable so I took off my shoes and joined in. A few hours later I heard Grandma Olson asking who's shoes were on the floor. She called out to a few of her granddaughters, all of them told her no. I finally realized that she was talking about my shoes and so I piped up and said they were mine. Grandma Olson then replied "Those are UGLY shoes!" I learned that day that Grandma Olson was a very confident woman who wasn't afraid to speak her mind and I got rid of those shoes shortly after!

Grandma Olson passed away a few weeks ago at the young age of 94. She was still strong and very independent, living in her own home by herself. She was a wonderful lady and she will definitely be missed. One last gift she was able to give, was the gift of reuniting her descendants. She was survived by 4 of her 5 children, many grandchildren, many many great grandchildren, and was a few short months away from being a great great grandmother.



The funeral was nice. Perhaps the best part of the funeral was when Uncle Greg got up and told about the time that they encountered Bigfoot. A story that I was able to hear first hand a few short months ago. In fact, we got it on video and you can view it HERE: Bigfoot is real people!


Patrick was a paul bearer along with his brothers and cousins. Patrick's sister said at the funeral that Grandma Olson once told her that when she dies she wanted a bagpiper to play Amazing Grace while the attendants of her funeral cried and whaled over her casket. There was a bagpiper and there were tears shed over her casket...just like she wanted.





She was buried on top of her husband Cyril. I never had the chance to meet Cyril as he died before I even knew the Durlings, but apparently he was an awesome man with a love of shoes and an addiction to Dr. Pepper. Patrick thought it would be fun to bring a case of Dr. Pepper to the burial and toast his grandparents. Many of the cousins thought that was an awesome idea as well and many of the great grandkids just wanted a soda...caffiene and all.



We were able to hang out with family from Utah. We were able to get a good picture of Raya, Jenaia, and Clara who are a few short months apart. We've been doing pictures like this every time we get together. It's so fun to watch those girls. Even though they don't see each other enough, they are like best friends when they get together!



Carly shocked us by paying special attention to Grandpa Durling. I looked over at her willingly giving a hug and then later watched her climb up on his lap and hang out for awhile...all totally out of her character, but so awesome to see:



Later that night, we all headed over to Grandma Olson's house to hang out and reminisce of the past. Grandma had an elephant collection and she had written down that she wanted each of her grandchildren to get one. There was a very big one that Patrick wanted really bad. In fact, he was bribing his siblings and cousins in order to get it, but through some shady circumstances, his cousin got it. We got a good elephant...it matches my decor better anyway. I was at Tuesday Morning the other day and found an elephant that was about the same size as Patrick's grandmothers, but much cuter...It was $120! So instead of buying it, I just took a picture:



The next day, Patrick's brothers and the wives all went out to dinner after rollerskating at my nieces birthday party. It was so fun and I really enjoyed the company. Anna got pictures of us and when I get them from her, I will include them here, but in the meantime, you can enjoy these pictures I got when I was messing around with the panoramic function on my phone camera....don't laugh too hard:







Here are the pictures from Anna:





The Durling's were reunited once again because of Grandma Olson. She was a wonderful lady who lived a long life and because of her, we were able to gather once again and get this picture of all the Durlings. RIP Grandma Olson, you will be missed!