Helen Johnson, R.I.P.

My mother, Helen Johnson, passed away last night in her sleep.  After battling colon cancer for the past year, she passed last night, at the age of 87.  

In May, the doctors told us she would likely live another one or two years.  In late October, just after we arrived in Ecuador, she was put into hospice, with the doctors saying she had two or three months remaining.  Late last week she went into a coma, and died in her sleep last night. Fortunately, this meant that her suffering was shortened, and was able to pass comfortably.

Helen raised two sons, Mike and me, mostly as a single mother, having married and divorced three times. She helped provide a good basis for future success for both sons, and we both went to college — the first to do so in the family’s history.  As with most parents, she wanted her kids to succeed beyond what she had accomplished, and she was pleased that both kids had done so.

She went to college briefly in Minnesota, studying journalism, but dropped out at the end of WWII and moved to California.  It was there that she met Fred, her first husband and my father, and married in 1948.  Here is a photo from that wedding that I found when going through old photo albums.  It is hard to believe that my mother was ever so young…!

1 thought on “Helen Johnson, R.I.P.”

  1. Bert, glad to hear from . Wanted to let you know that you were a great son, so good to your Mom.

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