Bea 

I met Beatrice Fisher August 14, 2010 at the Senior Home in Canoga Park, California. We went to see her every weekend. We gave her an hour out of our Saturday or Sunday every weekend and she said it made her whole week better. Beatrice preferred us to call her Bea instead of Beatrice.

Bea was born September 12, 1912 in Gary, Indiana. She and her twin sister were the oldest children in the family. As a child her favorite thing to do was to take care of her brothers and sisters and they had lots of fun playing together. She loved to play croquet. She said they never went on vacations but she did remember going to the fair one time and loved the popcorn and cotton candy that they all shared.

She lived in Chicago for a while and worked at American Can Company for 10 years. She then fell and broke her leg. Throughout her life she remembered breaking four bones. Except for that job she was a house wife and only drove the car a few times. She was very proud of her brother Barney Ladell who played with the Lawrence Welk band for 48 years. She looked forward to watching the reruns every week because she got to see her brother again. One day when we were there she said it was not on that weekend and it made her sad. Each week from then on she said he didn’t come on that week and she missed seeing her brother. She would always say, “Hopefully it will be back on next weekend”.

Her favorite flowers were yellow roses, her favorite candy bars were Hershey’s with Almonds and she loved to drink Coke. Throughout her life she had three poodles. She took pride in how she looked, when she was younger she liked to wear high heels and every time we saw her she was dressed in a beautiful outfit and matching earrings.

She once told me her biggest accomplishment was getting married and having her children. One day, in September, when we were visiting she told us it was her 70th anniversary. She was married in a church in 1941 and lived across the street from the church. She said “My husband always gave me roses for our anniversary, but he died. When I talked my daughter this morning she said, ‘It’s not your anniversary, He’s dead Mom’. But an anniversary is the day you got married, so it is my anniversary.” While I sat there and talked to Bea some more, my grandmother and my sister went to the store and bought her yellow roses, a Hershey Bar with Almonds and a Happy Anniversary balloon. When we gave them to her she cried and said “These are roses just like my husband always gave me for my anniversary.” It made her so happy and we all cried together.

Bea loved to crochet but her hands give her problems so she is not able to crochet as much as she would like to. One Saturday when we went to visit she was making a scarf out of some yarn a friend had brought her. She said she wanted to make each of us a scarf before she dies so we will remember her. Then she showed us all the small pieces she had been working on. The next week when we went to see her they were finished and she gave them to us. She was so happy she was able to finish them and give them to us. I was happy when she gave me the scarf, it meant a lot that she spent so much time on something for me.

Every Friday Bea goes to play bingo in the Senior Home activity center. There is a cat here in the Senior Home named Angel. "She really is an angel” says Bea. Bea told us about a mean old lady there who hates Angel and this lady is so mean to her. She hits the cat with her walker and it makes Bea mad. Sometimes Angel slept with Bea and that made Bea very happy. Bea has a twin sister who lives in Corona, CA in a different Senior Home. She wants Bea to move with her but Bea said she can't because it is 2 hours away, and Bea's son lives nearby. Bea try's to go and see her sister almost every holiday if she can get a ride. Her sister is very sick; Bea said she didn't look so good when she went to visit her the last time.

Bea had to go to the hospital 2 months later because she got sick and she had to have heart surgery. We went to visit Bea when she was in the hospital; she was pail and did not look very good. A couple of weeks later Bea passed away. I am still very sad I miss Bea very much I pray to make sure she's ok. I talk to her all of time I loved going to the senior home to see her it was the highlight of her week and it was the highlight of mine. Stay tuned to find out other interesting stories about other seniors that I'm going to visit.