Wanda Jane Mikuchonis

Wanda Jane Foster Mikuchonis went to be with the Lord on September 3rd, 2021 after a 10 year struggle with Traumatic Brain Injury from a horse accident in Gatesville, Texas in September of 2011.

Wanda grew up in Halifax Massachusetts, with a passion for horses. She was a kindred spirit to the family cats, and dogs Tippy & Daisy Mae. She loved reading, drawing, coloring, long family walks, swimming, and climbing trees. Everything nature, everything beautiful, that was our sister Wanda.

Wanda enjoyed attending the 2 week summer church camp in summers at the Swedenborgian New Church Organization’s camp Blairhaven in Duxbury, MA and attended the Fryeburg New Church Assembly as a Flame in Fryeburg, Maine. She went to Halifax Elementary School, and Silver lake regional Jr High School in Pembroke, MA. She also attended some schooling at Silver Lake High School in Kingston, MA and some High School in Reno, Nevada where her sister Karen lived.

She completed a partial year in college at Swedenborgian New Church Bryn Athen campus in Bryn Athen, Pennsylvania before joined the Army Reserves and then enlisted full time, serving almost 7 years of active duty. She was stationed at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas; Nuremburg, Germany and finally Fort Hood, Killeen, Texas. In Germany she loved the Volksmarches, the cross country skiing, shopping at the Christkindlmart, creative story writing, and photography. She also spent time with and got to know her Uncle Richard Alden Foster’s family.

While in the Army Wanda married Mike Mikuchonis in Texas, they had one son, Ryan. They made their home in Killeen and loved their 27 acre property on Shell Mountain in Gatesville, TX where they built deer stands and hunted White Tail deer and wild pigs. They worked by hand clearing trees and brush off the land, and digging a water line for their future home. Mike was a veteran, served in Desert Storm and went to be with the Lord after a long battle with cancer when Ryan was 14, and before they could build their home on the property. She later had their dream home built, worked and hunted on the property with son Ryan and father-in-law George. Her tenacious spirit hardly kept her down. She devised a way to feed the deer that would come to the bottom of the hill from up at the house, using PVC pile and feeding deer corn through the pipe where it would travel downhill for 300 feet to where the deer would eat it. It wasn’t uncommon for her to replace a 4X8 sheet of water damaged plywood in 100 temperatures on her house which the contractor had failed to finish. She and Ryan took in horses during an extreme draught one time because the property had a natural tank in the valley. She loved her cats, too, and she once had a dog named Icy. She worked as Pharmacy tech at Fort Hood and later worked in Copperas Cove making award plaques and then at Walmart in Killeen.

She loved crafting, creative writing, traveling, hiking and photography, and long talks on the telephone. She would take trips with Ryan to visit points of interest in Massachusetts to visit family, New Hampshire, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, calling up family members to share her excitement. She fell in love with Ruidoso, New Mexico after visiting her sister Dawn and wanted to move there before her accident left her disabled.

Wanda and her contagious enthusiasm will be missed by all who got to know her. There will be a Military Service at the Killeen Veteran’s Cemetery on October 22, at 11:00 AM and a service with a reception at Crawford and Bowers Funeral Home in Temple, Texas at 12:30PM.

Wanda is survived by her Son Ryan Mikuchonis and Daughter-in-law Tiffany Mikuchonis, her Sisters Karen Coffelt, Dawn Foster and Hope Foster, niece Chrystal Foster; Brother Kenneth Foster and Sister-in-law Diana Foster, step-nephew Mario Tavares and niece Alicia Foster; uncles George, Andy & Robin Gaul as Donald Foster and wife Jane Foster and numerous cousins in the Foster and Gaul clans. She is preceded in death by her husband Michael Mikuchonis and father-in-law George Mikuchonis, Parents, Beryl Gaul Foster and Reverend Theodore Theberath Foster, Grandparents Rufus and Martha Gaul, and Uncle Richard Alden Foster.

In lieu of flowers, a Go Fund Me account has been set up at https://www.gofundme.com/f/memorial-expenses-for-foster-family?qid=8bd9d24353ddd2cf3c43584de49fb267 to help with family travel and funeral expenses.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.crawfordbowerstemple.com for the Mikuchonis family.