05/14/2025
Our family said goodbye to our beloved Grammy Skippy this week. She died on Mother’s Day eve while eating a box of chocolates in bed - a sweet ending to her beautifully long life!
An hour before she passed, she was singing joyously with one of her 8 great grandkids, a testament to her will to live life to the fullest to the very end.
Her almost 98 years on the planet blossomed a family with so much love for one another.
A first-gen U.S. citizen, she was raised in North Mpls. She was endlessly creative & always trying new things, including teaching synchronized swimming, and was passionate about women’s issues. She was a published writer and poet, nurturing teacher at heart, animal lover, fashionista, handywoman, prankster with a sense of humor and aggressive driver of multiple Cadillacs.
She had 4 loving & very tall sons. Steve, Greg, Jeff and Scott were her pride and joy, and she loved to reminisce about their childhood antics.
She raised them alongside our grandpa Bert in Albert Lea, MN, who she married at 18. She made angel food cakes to earn money, bought powdered milk to save money, and ran the roost while her husband ran the family business, Gordon Electric, until eventually to her delight, they retired to Florida.
I loved visits to her FL home during childhood, learning how to tread water “the right way” in her pool, & blaring Billy Ocean + Whitney Houston while my sisters and I made up dangerous games jumping on her giant pool raft.
She took us to the beach to watch the sunrise, taught us how to set the dinner table properly, how to make Rugelach, about ocean creatures, shells, endangered species, fire ants, taking risks, helping others, being a good friend, how to speak quieter, and the value of theater and an old fashioned handwritten letter.
Life threw her curveballs, but that built her strength & character till the end. She was a strong woman and knew how to get what she wanted, even if it meant waving her arm in the air & shouting “You- Hoooo,” trying to hail any waitress in sight.
She made her entire extended family feel special & loved & we will miss her. Her memory will live on in each of us ❤️ and most certainly be a blessing.
