Elizabeth Lilly Hanisch Green

Aunt Betty was my dad’s only sibling and also my Godmother. I had the privilege of taking care of her in recent years. I tried to be there for her after Uncle Bill died in December 2010, and her close friend, Lyn, died in May 2011. After I became a widow in September 2011, I started visiting her 2-3 times a year. We had a routine—catching up, shopping at Stein Mart, where I’d try on outfits for her opinion, a gourmet dinner at Vintner’s, poker machines at Red Rock, then I’d return to Pasadena, California. She always told me it took her three days to recover.

Betty outlived all her family. Dad died at age 50; my German grandparents died in their mid 70s, and she turned 98 on May 7th, 2025.

My German grandparents, Christine and Joseph Hanisch, emigrated to Trochu, Alberta, Canada from Danzig, Poland, about 1925, where Christine had relatives. After Betty was born, they settled in Chilliwack, British Columbia, and had a chicken farm and a huge raspberry patch. I spent summer weeks with them for a few years, and loved picking wild blackberries and listening to Amos and Andy and The Shadow on the radio.

Betty and Bill married August 17, 1951. It was an intimate ceremony with only close family. I was five years old and the only child there--and apparently was flipping peas across the table at Bill’s cousin. Betty still remembered that and I am still mortified.

They had an interesting life. Mom knew Bill before he met Betty, as they both worked at Prairie Airways, in Saskatchewan. When they each moved to Vancouver, they kept in touch. After mom and dad had married and built their first house, they threw a housewarming party, inviting Betty, and Bill, who had asked mom if she knew any single women. Well, they hit it off, left early, and the rest is history. Betty and Bill settled in Portland where Bill worked as an engineer for Crown Zellerbach and Betty was a bookkeeper. Then Uncle Bill met Blackie, that started their big adventure as entrepreneurs. Blackie sold them the White House Spa-Tel, in Desert Hot Springs, and off they went to California, where they successfully ran it for 22 years. They sold it in the 1980s and moved to Del Webb’s Sun City in Summerlin.

They were active in tennis and square dancing, and Betty enjoyed making her green ware and participating in other crafts, that were popular at their annual Craft Fair. Betty became interested in Las Ventanas (LV), which was just being built. They bought into LV Independent Living in 2005 and happily became part of the lifestyle--Betty, in particular. That included committees, event planning, decorating, flower arranging and even inventory. Her many and very organized storage rooms were impressive, and full, with Christmas trees, wreaths and beautiful silk flower and table arrangements, over which she fiercely guarded.

Their move to LV was fortuitous, as Uncle Bill was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and bladder cancer shortly after the move. She took care of him for 5 years before he died in 2010. As those who know her may recall, she was a force of nature. She was a strong woman, not afraid to speak up, and had a few knock-down, drag-out fights with those who crossed her path. But she always had the best interests of LV at heart, so everyone survived Betty and loved her! She was looking forward to joining Uncle Bill.