After While Crocodile

On Christmas Day, my family was sitting around Carla and Jason’s basement digesting a delicious meal, letting DIE HARD play in the background, playing pool, and discussing one of Amanda’s latest real estate projects.

It was not going to be a joyous Christmas. About a week before Christmas, my last living grandparent was put into hospice care at the Boone County Hospital. Grandma Paris.

Grandma had 7 children and they had been taking shifts around the clock to make sure she was never alone. My Mom’s shift was from 3:30 to 7. Mom was about an hour away from going to cover her shift when the call came that she should come immediately. The time was here.

Teresa drove the Mom to the hospital. About 10 minutes later my phone rang and it was Teresa. Grandma was gone.

She was 94 years old and while she had been suffering from the symptoms of dementia for several years, she had never lost her wit. Just a few weeks earlier, one of my aunts was grousing about family conflict and asked Grandma, “Why did you have to have all of these kids?”

Grandma shot back, “Which one of them do you think I shouldn’t have had?”

My aunt had no response.

That was Grandma.

Her obituary:

Obituary for Doris Paris
Doris Paris
August 20, 1925 – December 25, 2019

Doris Irene (Majors) Paris, 94, died peacefully on Wednesday, December 25, 2019 at the Boone County Hospital in Boone, Iowa.

Doris, the daughter of Robert Lee and Goldie Faye (Patterson) Majors was born in Old Centerville, Iowa, August 20, 1925. She attended Hickory Grove School and received her GED from Des Moines Area Community College.

On March 7, 1942, she married Lyle R. Paris in Bethany, Missouri. She retired following 29 years of service with Bourns, Inc. located in Ames.

In 1937 she was baptized at the Central Christian Church and served as deacon, member of Christian Women’s Fellowship Group #1, Home Builder’s Sunday School class and choir. She also served many years as the church’s kitchen leader for its Annual Harvest Dinner, funeral luncheons and monthly lunches for senior church members. In addition to her church work, she actively participated in two quilt clubs and Jill’s craft club.

She is preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Lyle R. Paris and by four sisters: Margaret Lykens, Gladys Paris, Betty Walker and Marjorie Lau; six brothers: Donald, Harold, James, Robert, Raymond, and Thomas; daughter-in-law Charlene Paris; two sons-in-law: Gerald Bennett and Dean Walter; granddaughter-in-law Olivia Bennett and great grandson Samuel Bennett.

Survivors include five daughters and three sons-in-law. Charlotte Bennett, Delores (Dee) and Richard VanDePol, Sheryl (Sherry) and Terry Johnson, Dianna (Annie) Walter and Lori and Roger Sebring; two sons: Lyle (Butch) Paris and Gary Paris; three sisters-in-law: Denise Majors of Ankeny, Mary Jo Woodard and Jan Pulver both of Boone; 15 grandchildren; 29 great grandchildren and 7 great-great grandchildren.

Doris’ love of God, family, sense of humor, sweet spirit, gentle nature, hard work ethic, good cooking and the kindness she showed to others will truly be missed, but never forgotten.

The family will be present to greet friends at a visitation from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm on Saturday, January 4, 2020 at Schroeder-Stark-Welin Funeral Home, 609 7th Street, Boone, Iowa. A private family burial will be held at Linwood Park Cemetery in Boone, Iowa at a later date.

Memorials are suggested to the family to be determined at a later date. Online condolences may be left at www.schroederfuneral.com.

To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Doris Paris please visit our Sympathy Store.

I was mercifully out of the state while the details were worked out, but I believe that memorial will go to hospice and the American Heart Association.

I’d like to share a few pictures of Grandma with you:


Mom and Grandma

Grandma's Kids

Mom's Family

Old - Alternate

Stensland Family Photo Shoot - 2016

Majors Family Reunion - 2008

Stensland Family Photo Shoot - 2016

Photo Journal - Page 117

Photo Journal - Page 117

May 12, 2019

Grandma was a great gardener and I often would go over to her house and photograph her flowers. Here are some of her flowers:


2007


One last thing I want to share about Grandma before I close. Grandma was an avid collector of garden statues. She had them all over the yard. Many other people in our family have shown the same affinity. My Mom does it. Teresa does it. Carla does it. You may have noticed the large collection of frog statues (and other things) strewn across my yard.

There are times that this trait is somewhat derogatorily referred to in the family as “The Doris Gene”. However, I never took it to be a negative. I actually consider it to be a blessing. The first time I buy a new statue for the yard in 2020 (and I already have my eye on one from a shop in Minnesota) and every time I buy a stature after, I will think about Grandma.

I hope you have things that you do to that help you to remember the people that you love. They are some of the greatest blessings.