Virginia Elise McGrew-Hall

Beloved mother of Karen & Rick; “Gran” to Jeff & Jeremy; sister of Carl; cherished friend of so many; “Aunt Leesey” to countless nieces & nephews. Memorial service Sat Aug 4, 4pm at Littleton Seventh Day Adventist Church, 7400 S Windermere St. In lieu of flowers, please donate to: The3day.org.

Elise was born March 30, 1939 in Baltimore, Maryland, and passed away on July 20, 2012, in her home in Littleton, Colorado. She was preceded in death by her first husband, of 36 years, Richard McGrew, and her second husband, of almost 3 years, Boyd Hall. She is survived by her brother Carl, her son Rick and daughter Karen, her grandsons Jeff and Jeremy, her grand-cat Billy and her grand-dogs Benjamin and Chloe.

Elise’s life revolved around her friends and family. She never met a stranger, and once you were her friend, you were as good as family. And there was nothing she wouldn’t do for her family. She loved to cook for people. She was famous for her fried chicken and potato salad, her coffee cake, her enchiladas. She loved having visitors, and her house had a constant stream of neighbors and friends dropping in for tea, and out of town family coming to visit. Everyone was always welcome, and the more the merrier. She loved to travel, but only if it was with friends or to visit friends. She was lucky enough to have friends and family all over the world, so she got to see some interesting places, like Sweden and South Africa. She lived in Japan as a little girl, right after WWII, and it always held a special place in her heart. The family farm, Thornbrook, in Maryland was also very special to her. She spent summers there as a child, and continued to visit her entire life.

Richard had cancer, and was taking monthly chemo treatments. One day, one of the other patients was finishing treatment, so they had a party and Richard and Elise brought lunch and a cake for everyone who was taking treatment that day. Everyone enjoyed themselves so much; Richard and Elise started bringing lunch every time they came for Richard’s treatment. The other patients started scheduling their treatments to be on the day Richard and Elise came. After Richard died in 1995, Elise continued bringing lunch every month, until November 2011. In 2009, she was recognized by Channel 7 as a 7 Everyday Hero, which she greatly deserved. People were constantly amazed that she was serving them lunch out of the goodness of her heart, and not charging them for it. She often made someone’s day who was taking chemo for the first time, or someone who hadn’t had any appetite but couldn’t resist having one of her sandwiches and a piece of cake. She loved doing it, and always had wonderful stories about the people she met there.

She also participated in the Susan G Komen 3 day walks for Breast Cancer. 60 miles in 3 days. The first few years she actually trained for them. After that she would try to walk a few extra miles a couple of times before the walk, and I don’t know how she did that….she was in her 60’s…but she was able to not train and still walk 60 miles. She really loved doing those walks. She loved all the new friends she met, and the accomplishment of doing the 60 miles and raising the money. She didn’t even mind sleeping in the tents. She did 9 walks, and raised about $25,000. She was honored to be a flag bearer that participated in the opening and closing ceremonies during the last 2 walks. She even walked last November, while she was undergoing chemo. She didn’t quite make all 60 miles, but she was pretty close.

She loved hot tea, iced tea, enchiladas, Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream with homemade chocolate sauce, gummi bears, Baskin Robbins World Class Chocolate Ice Cream, Butterfinger bars, shopping, and spending time with friends and family.

To everyone who is reading this, Elise had a special place in her heart for you. She loved all of you, and never forgot a kind word you said, or a nice thing you did for her. If you ever gave her a gift or a card, she cherished it….and still has it in her house! She could never bear to get rid of anything that was given to her by one of her friends or family.