Elizabeth Jean Hoffman

Elizabeth (Betty) was born in Loma Linda, California on March 30, 1928. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. Her siblings Don, Dick, Harry and Eleanor Ironmonger all predeceased her. Her parents Otis and Ethel Ironmonger were ministers with the Presbyterian Church. They raised Betty and all their children in the love of the Lord through the difficulties of the Great Depression.

Elizabeth was married to William Hoffman on June 20, 1951 and enjoyed over 55 years of marriage to Bill until he went to heaven before her on November 25, 2006.

She is survived by her three sons: Robert Hoffman (Lois Hoffman), James Hoffman (Stacy Hoffman) and Bruce Hoffman (Olga Hoffman). She is also survived by eight grand children: Jesse, Linda, Kelsey (Martin), Brianne (Justin), Alyssa, McCayla (Alex), Nick and Alex. She also is survived by one Great Granddaughter due to be born in March 2022.

In addition to being a great mother to her three sons, she was also the solid rock and anchor of our family. She so often would show great wisdom to us in our family. She showed tremendous hospitality to our friends as we grew up. She was known at King’s Garden High School for her toasted cheese sandwiches!

She was ahead of her time in so many ways. She was instrumental in making King’s Garden first auction back in the 70s a huge success. Her job was to go to merchants and stores and get them to donate to the auction. She received quite a bounty of goods. In all the places she went she had a hundred percent success rate! She told of one man who tried to refuse her and her response was shock, “You won’t give to King’s Garden?” The man couldn’t refuse her.

One time back in the mid-80s when she was getting her haircut near Everett Mall the owner was frustrated because she had hired a kid to be clown. The guy wasn’t into it and wasn’t showing up. Mom replied, “I could do that!” She was a clown for them with all her heart. At that time, I had two different friends tell me about this clown at this haircut shop on Everett Mall Way that was getting all the semi-trucks to honk as they went by and really was causing quite a commotion! My response to them, “Yes, I know about that; that is my Mom!”

Growing up as the youngest in her family, she desired to drive a car. Since she was underage, she needed to have her parents to sign so she could get her driver’s permit. They were afraid that she wasn’t ready so they refused to give their permission. Betty therefore did not get her driver’s license until she was in her mid-40s. What made Betty unique was although she didn’t get a driver’s license, she learned how to fly small planes! She flew solo several times and only needed to fly cross country to get her pilot’s license. She refused to do that because she thought she would get lost. Knowing her sense of direction, we think she was right.

In 2010 Betty got really sick to the point where she really should have died. God rescued her answering prayer and with the help of some great doctors she recovered from a sickness that should have killed her. Since that time she referred to her life as bonus time! One of the doctors that she had at that time was not convinced at the quality of life she would have.

During her bonus time years, she won two organ competitions that gave her free trips to compete in Las Vegas. She had tremendous times with her family which she always enjoyed. She took three trips to Russia to visit some of her family there. She amazed them there as she amazes so many here. She made the most of her bonus time!

Probably Betty’s strongest feature is how she could brighten everybody’s day no matter who you are. Strangers that she had never met left her feeling much better about themselves than before they had seen her. Betty looked for things in people that she could admire and then shared her honest appreciation with them. She will be missed by so many and quite frankly will be missed by those who never even met her!

The last couple of years should have been miserable for Betty as she was confined to a wheelchair and was separated from family because of the Covid pandemic. It turned out though that the window visits that we did since March of 2020 turned out to be family reunions twice a week. Nothing made Betty happier than getting the family together! She was not unhappy in her difficult situation but found a way to have a positive attitude in it. Even in her difficult situation staff from the facility would come to her room to be encouraged!

Betty was a strong believer in Christ! One of her favorite verses was: 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

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With these verses in mind Betty bought graves for Bill and herself next to her parents. Her logic was when the rapture happens she wants to be with Bill and her parents. She didn’t want to get lost.

We are very sad to lose Betty, but at the same time we are very happy for her to be reunited with Bill, with her parents and siblings and many others. We know that Betty is receiving a rich welcome into heaven! We are so thankful to have known Betty and will miss her mightily but are thankful that we have the hope and promise that we will meet again!

To view Betty's Memorial Service please visit: https://youtu.be/LCv_en2dStY