"Magnetic personality"
"Classy, lover of life"
"Rich in faith, rich in spirit, rich in love, rich in generosity"
These are just a few comments from family and friends, trying to sum up mom's life, and what she meant to them.
The story of Yvonne Pauline Johnson begins with her birth in Massachusetts but she spent early childhood years in Lithuania. As a young girl, the family returned to the United States where she attended Annunciation School and Parish in Brooklyn, where she was forced to quickly learn a new language.
Mom had a talent for singing and performing and was a regular in the church choir, as she would be in two other churches for most of her life. She loved the stage and frequently performed in school productions. While most of her roles are lost to history, it's safe to say her signature performance was as a man -- Judas Iscariot. Mom, in full beard, played the betrayer of Christ.
Mom only attended high school for a couple years and then worked for the Nedick's restaurant chain. Dad also worked for Nedick's, although not the same one at that time. But after seeing mon there as a teen, according to mom's sister, Jenny, "he just kept coming back."
Mom married in 1944 and the young couple first lived with her mother and father. In 1949, mom and dad moved to Washington to open a new Nedick's franchise. This career was cut short when dad physically escorted musician and band leader Xavier Cugat from the premises for refusing to leave his dog outside the restaurant, and the restaurant manager sided with the celebrity.
Dad was soon working home delivery as a milkman with Embassy Dairy and in 1951, mom gave birth to her first son, Thomas. By now the family was settled in Riverdale, Maryland, attending St. Bernard's Parish. Greg was born in 1954, and both sons attended St. Bernard's Grade School. Mom would go back to work part time in 1960, and full time by 1963, as a book keeper for Local 99/99A of the international Union of Operating Engineers.
Children went to college, moved away, started families, while mom stayed a fixture of the St. Bernard's choir. mom and dad moved to Crofton, Maryland, in the mid-1980s, where mom continued her love of music in the choir of Sacred heart Church.
She had grandchildren now who loved to come for visits and the special treats that always awaited.
Mom became somewhat infirm with age, but still saw four grandchildren go to college and two marry. For the last year and a half of her life, mom lived with her son Tom in Huntingtown, Maryland, who took her in when living alone became too difficult.
In the end, mom was home, with her son, and never had to endure a difficult hospital stay or live outside her home. A friend, Debbie Cooley, was mom's constant companion during this time, providing company and an ear to listen while keeping up her spirits as well as her hair and nails. She was with mom till the end.
But this is only a sketch; it doesn't begin to fill in the full picture of mom's life. Here are a handful of memories picked from years past:
Summer visits to her older sister, Anne, In New Jersey, and her younger sister, jenny, on Long Island
Toll House cookies, orange icing cake or the international cake for a birthday
Teaching her children the intricacies of Easter egg decorating
Making sure birthdays and Christmas were special for her children--even buying music she didn't entirely approve of
Walking down the road with her two sisters on a summer's evening in New jersey singing Lithuanian songs
Legends of mom trying to learn how to ride a bike or drive a car--mom never did get a driver's license
Dad insisting mom would give a Nedick's customer a sandwich with nothing between the bread, but after a smile they never noticed
Counseling patience for both husband and son as they went on emotionally fraught outings to practice driving
Trips to New York with dad to see a musical
An ability, maybe a gift and maybe a burden, to sometimes get a glimpse beyond this life and see departed relatives
And always, always at the core, was her faith. Supporting the church, its charities, its missions and its priests memained priorities.
These are just some of our memories. What are yours?
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