Mildred Green

Mildred Green passed away peacefully, “going on vacation” as she used to say, in the early morning hours of Saturday, April 18, in her room at Brookdale Monument Valley Park in Colorado Springs after falling and breaking her hip two weeks prior. Mildred, a month shy of her 97th birthday, was part of the Greatest Generation and wife of Ralph Eric Green, a World War II RAF pilot who died in 2011. Married 68 years, Mildred lived a rich and rewarding life with Eric that included six children, nine grandchildren, numerous great grandchildren, as well as numerous in-law spouses and children. Family was everything to Mildred, who grew up an only child in the 1920s. “I always wanted a gaggle of children,” she often said.

Mildred was born on May 23, 1923 in Montreal, Canada, to Edith Forsyth, a recent immigrant from England. Raised by her mother and stepfather Cecil DeVoto, Mildred attended school in Westmount, a Montreal suburb, played shinny hockey on icy streets, and skied on Mont Royal. She met Eric in late 1942 when he was stationed at Lachine, Quebec, as an RAF flight instructor for the war effort. Over the next year Mildred regularly corresponded with Eric, who was sent west to Alberta to teach flying. The two were married in a military wedding on October 9, 1943 in Innisfail, Alberta, and honeymooned at Banff.

Afterward, Eric was stationed in Coventry, England, to fly bombing raids over Germany. Mildred rode in a convoy of ships from Canada to England in 1944 where she lived with her in-laws near Birmingham. After World War II ended, the couple and their two children moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1947. In July 1950 Mildred and Eric immigrated to the United States for more opportunity, first living in Peekskill in New York and then along the East Coast and South before settling in Houston, Texas in summer. “We didn’t think it would be so bad, but we couldn’t take the heat,” said Mildred. “Plus, they couldn’t make a decent cup of tea!”

To avoid the heat, they moved to Toronto, Ontario and then North Platte, Nebraska in 1951. Mildred finally reached the promised land in 1952, moving to Pueblo and then Colorado Springs in late 1952 where she lived the rest of her life. Working as a busy homemaker, Mildred tended her six children; taught the kids how to ice skate; planted huge vegetable gardens; attended operas in Santa Fe, New York City, and Seattle; and lived a busy and fulfilling life of conversation, friends, reading, drinking morning coffee at La Baguette, and clouds, trees, and mountain views. After Eric passed away on Christmas Eve 2011, Mildred continued to live alone at her dream home on Rainbow Place before moving into Brookdale in downtown Colorado Springs where she made new friends.

Mildred Green is survived by six children — Frances (Baer), Colin, Mark, Stewart, Eric, and Janet (Smith) and their spouses; nine grandchildren —Keith (Nicholls), Hiram, Ezra, Ian, Aubrey, Sarah (Smith), Noah (Smith), Emily (Smith), and Blake who passed in 2014; and six great grandchildren—Veronica (Nicholls), Jack, George, Serenity, Rockwell, and Lake.

A memorial service at Brookdale Monument Valley Park and gravesite ceremony will be held at a future date when health conditions allow. Thanks to Brookdale Hospice for providing care and love in the final stage of Mildred’s life.