On a hot summer day in Phoenix in 1999, Melissa rescued my Border collie, Bert, who was looking for me at our mutual mailbox at Bridgewood North 40. I had begun a new job that day, and Bert decided to follow me to work. Melissa kept him in her yard until I returned. What a blessing! 40th Street was such a busy road. We became friends at that point and I always appreciated her intelligence, knowledge of history and culture, sense of humor and her willingness to help others. She was extremely intuitive. We helped each other for many years. After I moved away from 40th Street, we began to lose touch. My condolences to the family and friends. I am doubly sad to learn of Uno's death. 


I met Melissa earlier this year and just learned of her passing.  Melissa was a beautiful person with a generous heart and kind soul. I am grateful for the time I had spent with her.

I had been trying to reach Melissa for awhile.  When I couldn't I just figured maybe she had gone to Chicago for a visit with friends.  My cousin suggested I google her name and I can tell you I was shocked to find out she had unexpectedly passed away - so soon after Uno's death. 

No funeral, no goodbye, no nothing.  I still have trouble accepting her passing.  

Melissa was my 3rd cousin.  My mother and her mother Louise (cousins) were great friends and my mother and father both adored Melissa additionally.  They both told me about what a fun, kind hearted person she was.  I really wish I had known her.  She has kindly provided me with tremendous information regarding  our family history and some beloved treasures that  belonged to my great grandmother.  I am blessed to have these.    I am saddened to learn of her passing so shortly after she lost Uno.  I will keep them in my thoughts and prayers.  

I have known Melissa since she  was a preschooler and she wanted to marry me soon! She was so much fun. She and Uno were a loving couple. We shopped for and ate canned herring at my visits. She was so intelligent and perceptive...I could go on
May God greet them both and we know He will embrace them with his Love. I will remember them  the rest of my days  

Ingmar

Kind, sensitive, astute, articulate, generous, thoughtful, talented, perceptive, clever, artistic, charming, strong, empathetic, loving, elegant, poised, gentle, Melissa lived a life that brought joy  and significance to many. 

In our youth, we loved nature, animals, and took up the torch to protect our national, natural bounty by writing letters to politicians and figures who had more power than we.  I got a letter back personally signed by the Secretary of the Interior (nice);  Melissa got a lovely, personal letter signed by  First Lady Jackie Kennedy (awesome).  She was so powerfully eloquent, possessing the power to make anyone feel loved, special, cherished, moved and important, as evidenced by a letter she wrote to me on Thanksgiving Day, 1968:


This is probably the most difficult piece of writing I have ever undertaken, for putting down in writing my thoughts and feelings on her passing—and her living—inevitably means saying a final good bye. How can I put down in words all of the gifts that her living brought me over our entire lives together? Aside from the 2 1/2 months I had on this planet before she was born until her July 15th death, I had never imagined this world without her in it.  No one now has known me as long, nor as well, as did Melissa.  Not one day, not one hour goes by that I don’t feel the hole in my heart cratered out by Melissa’s death.  
 
My family was very small. I had only one brother, no cousins, no uncles, only one unmarried aunt.  But my family didn’t feel quite so small because the Sieberts were our chosen family—the people throughout my youth with which we celebrated holidays, regular weekend dinners, vacations, birthdays, rare dinners out in restaurants, thousands of special moments.   I cherish all the memories of our numerous trips together to New Orleans, a weeks-long California trek, Washington D.C., National and State Parks, beaches, Williamsburg, weekend get-aways…  All the overnights, the shared projects of all sorts, the trips to Mystery Park and Lempke’s bakery for summer popsicles, constructing fairy houses and gardens, high school classes, clubs, travels together and apart, jobs, husbands, fathers’ deaths, our mothers’ shared torturous dementia… 

I attempted to circumvent the system (limit of 2000 words) so that I might say more about Melissa.  However, not all of what I wrote has come through, and not in the correct order.  I know, it serves me right for not following the rules, but how could I possibly address Melissa's rich and fulfilling life in 2000 words?  She deserves far, far more.
Anyway, I shall try to send the rest of what I wrote, starting with what comes first.  I'll leave it to you to put the rest in some logical order.  My apologies.  
continued...

(continued) Sadly, we did not always get together on special days.  Busy schedules, physical distance, health issues, and ailing husbands kept us physically apart.  But we always connected, at least by phone, email, or text—but mostly through love and cherished thoughts.  

So, good bye, my dear, dear, dearest of friends.  Your love is carved into my heart forever & ever & ever…

Melissa got a lovely, personal letter signed by  First Lady Jackie Kennedy (awesome).  She was so powerfully eloquent, possessing the power to make anyone feel loved, special, cherished, moved and important, as evidenced by a letter she wrote to me on Thanksgiving Day, 1968:

Dear Kate-
	I think of special days—birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving—and they all bring memories of our “family” get-togethers—
	If and when we marry and have children, and they (Heaven forbid!) start asking about “olden days” they are going to hear about train trips and sledding and “Auntie Kate’s” great cookies, and about all the warm, glowing times we & our family have had together.
	I hope that we are always getting together on special days, and that we are always bestest friends—that would be the best and most precious gift I could ever ask for.
	Words are cold and so small in comparison to the friendship and happiness we’ve shared as “sisters” in the truest sense of that word.
	So when we are old (how easy to say that at 17) we can return to the Christmases of long ago, and re-discover the shining quality they held and will always hold—not to mention Thanksgiving  and birthday and silly times that are “punchy” and just everything…
	So thank you for being you and being my friend, and everything—even WWIII.
				From your friend forever & ever & ever…
						Melissa-Belle

Melissa was a close friend of my parents.  She was like their adopted daughter.  When my Mother passed away in 2010 in Bloomington Indiana she and Melissa had a big trip planned. They were planning to drive to Louisville Kentucky to tour Churchill Downs and the horse farms. About two weeks before the trip my Mother passed away. Instead of touring Churchill Downs Melissa flew in for my Mother’s Memorial service.  

OBITUARY

Melissa Siebert Kula

4 May, 1951 – 15 July, 2020

Green Acres Mortuary & Cemetery

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