Mithlesh Kumari Bhateley

Mithlesh Kumari Bhateley was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Mithlesh was born in 1938 in Agra, India, in the city of the Taj Mahal. She was the youngest of six siblings, with four sisters and two brothers.

When Mithlesh was only two years old, her own mother tragically passed away. The family compound where she was raised included the homes of her grandmother and five sets of aunts and uncles and their children. Having grown up in an active household, Mithlesh recounted how she would decide which family she would have dinner with based on who was making her favorite foods that day. In school, Mithlesh took part in numerous track and field events. Somehow, she participated in these races while hitching up her sari and running barefoot in the sand. She often won, and accumulated a dozen or so trophies. The silver loving cup trophies were beautiful and ornate, and when they were discovered in her possession many years later the children insisted they remain on display.

When Mithlesh was 16 years old, she attended Agra College and took courses in the sciences. This is where she met her future husband Ishwar Chandra Bhateley. In an effort to get to know this beautiful young girl, Ishwar, who was 5 years older, graciously offered to tutor her in chemistry, refusing any payment. Ishwar was a handsome young boy often racing around Agra on his motorcycle, and her family was concerned about his intentions. Once he disappeared for about a month and her family, including Mithlesh, thought that things had ended. However, in Bollywood movie fashion, it was discovered that Ishwar had been in the hospital for a month following a motorcycle accident, and had been sad no one in Mithlesh’s family had expressed any concern for him. Once the confusion cleared, things progressed quickly to wedding plans. The couple was married with great fanfare in February 1956 at Ishwar’s family home, Rose Villa.

As was traditional, the couple lived at Rose Villa. When Mithlesh was expecting their first child, Ishwar’s father requested that the couple live at the hospital during the last month of pregnancy to avoid any last minute hospital trips. Mithlesh often described the hospital rooms that were turned into living quarters and all of the furniture and supplies that were taken there. Two daughters were born during those years, Poonam and Sushma. Mithlesh loved her life in India surrounded by so much household help such as cooks, gardeners, nursery attendants and a chauffeur. There was even someone to take care of the 16 dogs.

Despite this ease of life, Mithlesh encouraged Ishwar to follow his dreams of becoming an aerospace engineer by attending graduate school at the University of Minnesota in the USA. When Mithlesh was only twenty one years old, she immigrated to America, arriving by plane to Minneapolis, with daughters aged 2 1/2 and 4 months. She always told the funny story of coming to America with a set of spoons in her coat pockets. She had heard that unlike in India, they used forks in America, and she needed spoons for tea and so much else. The family settled into Quonset hut student housing trying to adjust to the bland food, freezing climate, not yet knowing anyone in America, and missing family back home. When Ishwar graduated, he accepted an engineering job with Boeing and they moved to Seattle, eventually buying a house shortly before the birth of their son Dileep in 1963. Mithlesh never fully adjusted to what she would forever recount as Seattle’s cold and gloomy atmosphere.

When the children reached the ages of 11, 9, and 5 years old, Ishwar decided to accept a job offer with General Dynamics, now Lockheed-Martin, and the family moved to Fort Worth, Texas. They were one of very few Indian families in the region. She always said the weather in Fort Worth reminded her of her childhood home in Agra. Mithlesh was busy raising a young family and going to and hosting weekend parties. She was a wonderful, artful cook, and since she was a life-long vegetarian, it was hard to believe she could make delicious meats and meat curry dishes without ever having tasted them. Mithlesh prepared elaborate family dinners every night.

After Dileep entered first grade, Mithlesh decided to get a position as a preschool teacher. As a teacher, she could be home when the children finished their school day. Her favorite class was preschoolers ages 3 to 4. She said they were so cute, happy, attentive, and ready to learn. A few months ago, forty some years later, one of her preschool students came up to her residence and timidly knocked on the door. She asked if anyone who lived here used to teach preschool. It was quickly determined that Mithlesh had been her teacher, and the young lady proceeded to cry for 15 minutes. Eventually, she was able to say she had been looking for Mrs. Mithlesh for her entire life, about 40 years, since she was 5 years old. She had finally realized that Mithlesh was her first name, not her last name. She wanted to tell her how much Mithlesh positively influenced her life and had changed her future in so many ways. Mithlesh remembered her and was very honored.

During these years Mithlesh had little time to enjoy her previous hobbies of knitting, crocheting, sewing, and gardening, but she still loved to entertain. The family took frequent vacations, often with the Gupta and Jain families, to places like Yellowstone, Colorado, New Mexico and South Padre Island. As a mother, Mithlesh insisted that the children become proficient in skills she either didn’t have or that she felt were vital in life. She drove them to endless swimming lessons and other sports activities and she made sure they had a strong math background. Poonam became a civil engineer, Sushma became an aerospace engineer like her father, and Dileep became a doctor practicing in the central Texas area. Mithlesh was a stern but loving mother, determined to keep her children in line but not noticing they were already in line. All of the children attribute their successes in life to their parent’s constant involvement and interest in their lives.

It was when her children married and grandchildren were born that Mithlesh really began to relax and have fun. All of her grandchildren adored her. She knew what each one liked to eat and would make their favorite Indian foods and sweets, and was endlessly offering her grandchildren the tastiest food she had in the house. Mithlesh had a room full of toys, a changing table, crib, and high chairs and often kept the grandchildren overnight or for a weekend or longer.

Mithlesh was an Olympic award winning shopper and gift giver. She bought endless supplies of beautiful clothes for each grandchild– for each season and age. She clothed each of them for years, delighting both the grandchildren and their parents. She also got toys and books for them, and thoroughly spoiled them at every opportunity.

In later years Mithlesh had congestive heart failure but far surpassed the expectations of her doctors. Where previously she moved at lightning speed, she moved slowly and deliberately. Her memories began to recede but she remembered her younger years best. She loved her caregiver friends, Raquel and Rhonda, who helped take care of her in the last years of her life. Since Ishwar’s passing a year and a half before, Mithlesh entered a long slow decline in which she continually expressed her sorrow at her husband’s passing, missing him profoundly. Her last days and hours were spent in the company of her family, who love her dearly and will miss her tremendously.

Mithlesh is survived by her children including her daughter, Poonam Rani Bhateley Wiles and her husband, Russell Wiles; daughter Sushma Rani Bhateley, and son, Dileep Chandra Bhateley and his wife, Melanie Bhateley. She has several grandchildren: Erika Bhateley Johnson (Will Johnson), Ryan Bhateley Wiles (Justin Brown), Reena Bhateley Johnson (David Johnson), Grant Paul Zachary Wiles (Emily Sotzing), Caroline Anzaldua (Eric Anzaldua), Nathan Bhateley (Sammi Molloy), Clay Crane, and great grandchildren Emma Johnson, William Luke Johnson, Sophia Anzaldua, Alexander Anzaldua, and Andy Johnson.

Mithlesh was preceded in death by her much beloved husband Ishwar Chandra Bhateley, her parents, and her cherished grandson, Philip Zachary Wiles.