Our mom Gale Vande Brake, was born on June 17, 1957 in the state of Missouri. At the age of 5 1/2 months she was adopted by Charlene Gilham and California became her new home. She was now little sister to Bill and Dale Ervin making Grandma's family complete. In her teen years she became acquainted with her Missouri family and developed relationships with her sister Delores, and brothers Billy Bob and Tommy.
Our mom attended Mayfair High School, class of 1975. Her family was living on Dunrobin Avenue in Lakewood California and this is where she met my dad Dale Vande Brake at the age of 14. It happened one day while she was riding her bike down the street and got her pant leg caught in the chain in front of his house. He came to her rescue and that was the beginning of their life story. Within a short amount of time they were dating and on May 14, 1974 they were married.
They didn't take long to start their family and in March of 1975 they had their first daughter Shawna. Soon to follow were Adam in Feb. 1977, Jacob in Dec of 1978, and Erin in Aug. of 1981. She was a young mom and she showed it with her exuberant energy and willingness to play baseball in the street, or rollerskate with us, or even have water fights. Our home was a magnet for all the neighbor kids too. In the summer she would pile us into her little Isuzu pickup truck with 2 or 3 of us in the cab and 4 to 5 in the camper shell, turn the music up loud and cart us all down to the beach or the community pool. Most of our weekends and summer vacations were spent out in the desert riding dune buggies and ATC's or out camping in the mountains. Her happiest moments came from spending time with her family.
She was a very protective mom as well and would not let anyone mess with her kids. There was one time when she had decided to take Shawna, Jacob and Erin on a bus trip to Missouri. Our mom and Jake were sitting on one side of the aisle and Shawna and Erin on the other. A bum was sitting in the seat directly in front of our mom and he kept turning around staring as us girls. She was not going to put up with that so she rolled up a magazine and smacked him on the back of the head telling him to "quit looking at my girls". I think he got the message. On another occasion our mom happened to witness a teacher harassing Jacob at school and throw his backpack to the ground. Mom saw that and came running. The teacher saw her coming and ran into the principals office to hide. Mom gave them all a piece of her mind that day.
She was also determined to set a good example for us and decided that it was important for her to go back to school in order to obtain her diploma. She wanted to make sure that her children had no excuses for not finishing our own education. There was no doubt in any of our minds that our mom loved us and was always there to protect us.
She had a generous spirit as well and would often go out of her way to help people in need, even strangers. I remember one hot summer day when she saw a blind lady sitting at the bus stop and she felt so bad for her that she offered her a ride. It ended up that the lady needed a ride about 50 miles away to Riverside. Mom just opened the door and off they went. On another occasion she called to ask me to set some extra places at our Thanksgiving dinner. She had met a lady at the grocery store that didn't have a place to celebrate the holiday and so she had invited her and her children to join us.
Eventually, us kids grew up and Mom and Dad became Nana and Papa. It is safe to say that nothing in her life compared to the joy she had in becoming grandma to Drew, Dana, Hanna, Bella, Ava, Kailey, Peyton and Madysen. She truly loved spending time with them and taking them places. Whether she was taking them to the McDonald's playland, sitting with them in the kiddie pool during summer or watching one of the 100's of Disney DVD's she had collected for them, she just wanted to be near them. She often said that her children and grandchildren were her greatest accomplishments.
Most people will remember our mom with a smile on her face and for the happy energy that she exuded. People would gravitate toward her and she would make friends no matter where she went. Few people could have guessed that she was in a tremendous amount of physical pain for so much of her life. She had a hideous disease called Lupus that slowly and steadily took her life away. She fought as hard as she could for as long as she could and at the age of only 53, she has lost her battle. We take comfort that her beloved Mother and Father in law, Grace and John Vande Brake are with her in heaven. We would hope that our mom is remembered for her loving nature, her generosity, her kindness to others and for the strong determined woman that we knew her to be.
Memorial Services are planned on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 12:00 noon at the Pierce Brothers Crestlawn Memorial Chapel, 11500 Arlington Avenue, Riverside, CA. Interment will be private. Services have been entrusted to Pierce Brothers Crestlawn Mortuary, Riverside, CA.
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