Colleen Lorraine McNeil Hanson

“Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Matthew 25

Mom was born Colleen Lorraine McNeil, on February 28, 1931 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was number six of nine children with seven sisters and one brother. She moved to L.A. with her family and eventually to Vancouver, Canada where she attended high school. She made it through 11th grade when she decided to work to help her family financially. While not a high school graduate, she loved puzzles, games, cards, and could add numbers more quickly than any of us.

She moved to Portland in 1951, met Tony Hanson, and married him in 1952. Mom and Dad have six children, 13 grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren. They owned grocery stores in the Portland area, among them were Jiffy Mart Foods, Friendly Food Market, and Beaumont Market. The relationships she built with the customers were the highlight for her during her working career. After they sold the last store and retired, Mom worked for K-Mart where she enjoyed more customers and relationships with co-workers.

Mom was a great listener with a compassionate heart and was always interested in the lives of others. Mom and Dad always had great stories to tell about things that were happening in their customer’s lives.

She was a devout Catholic and attended mass regularly. Her contagious laughter often had all of us laughing until we cried. She laughed often, shared stories and jokes, and loved everyone. Her humor, imagination, and love are carried on through even the smallest of her great grandchildren.

The McNeil sisters were nothing if they weren’t Irish. They knew how to laugh, shop, return things, and have a good time. When the McNeil sisters were together there was never a dry eye in the house for all the laughter. When her granddaughter, Sarah, was little she paid grandma a quarter to become truly Irish. (It worked too-We think most of her grandchildren have seen the leprechauns under the bushes and paid the fee).

Mom’s and Dad’s house has always been a refuge and often is as busy as the mall at Christmas. No matter what happens in our lives we know they are always on our side, that there is a listening ear, and a bit of welcome advice.

We’ll all miss our mother terribly and there aren’t enough good words to say about her. Charles Dickens in his book Our Mutual Friend described how our mother lived her life.

“Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.”

She lived a life that represented what she repeated to us many times.

“Always be kind to one another.”

Arrangements under the direction of Gateway Little Chapel of the Chimes, Portland, OR.