A visitation for Bernadette will be held Sunday, November 6, 2022 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM at Cook-Walden Chapel of the Hills Funeral Home, 9700 Anderson Mill Road, Austin, TX 78750.
Bernadette was born on March 22, 1949 in Chicago, IL where she lived until she was married, after which she moved to Chicago’s suburbs. While living out there she was working at the Jewel-Osco grocery chain. She had her 2 children, Kimberly and James while living there. She went through a divorce, and stayed in the Chicago suburbs with her children until both moved away from home.
She was always strong-willed, but after the divorce she developed a sense of independence that blossomed across her life. She started small by trying various job positions. She worked at a beauty supply store, did data entry, worked as a bank teller (and later a manager), and drove a limo (where she once drove actor Bill Murray), until finally ending up in the car sales business.
In 2002 Bernadette struck out across the country, moving to Chandler, AZ where she got her realtor license. After a short 2 years in this industry, she returned to car sales.
In 2007 she decided she wanted to be closer to family, at which point she moved to Austin, TX, where both her children were living at the time.
In Austin, she joined the Covert Saturn dealership as a salesperson. She worked for various dealerships owned by the Coverts for the next 15 years. She covered a variety of positions within the company, but her loyalty was expressed in the fact that she worked for the Coverts until her death.
One of Bernadette’s passions in life was traveling and taking vacations. She found unique places to bring her children, from the mountains of Colorado to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. While her options were limited, she took advantage of every opportunity she had to explore the world. In the last few years, in the midst of many health challenges, she was able to do a tour across central and eastern Europe where she visited places like Warsaw Poland. Her most recent trip was to Alaska where she was able to do some tours and rode on a dogsled. She always brought a friend so they could share the experiences together.
One of her greatest passions was animals. As a child she would rent horses that you could ride up and down the lakeshore without supervision. As an adult, she briefly owned a horse named Whiskey. She had dogs as pets almost her entire adult life, mainly cocker-spaniels. At her peak she had five dogs in her house. After her children moved out, she kept her last remaining dog, Sharon, until the dog passed. While she still had a great love for dogs, she couldn’t be home enough to care for them, so she fostered cats for the Austin Humane Society. She permanently adopted two of them.
Bernadette was born to Lillian and James Huml, who predeceased her. Her two older sisters Carol Van Horn and Dorthy Harrison predeceased her. She was survived by her two younger siblings, Deborah Gorski and James Huml, along with her two children Kimberly Dexter and James Wendel, and her three grandchildren Emmeline, Tobias, and Kaladin.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.cookwaldenchapelofthehills.com for the Wendel family.
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