Clara Sanders

Our beloved Mother, Clara, passed away on February 21, 2013 at the age of 87, in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. She was born the youngest of 13 children to Minnie and Daniel Rentfro. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Howard, 11 of her siblings, and one granddaughter. She is survived by her older sister Anna Schultz of Effingham, Illinois, four children Ralph Sanders, Leona Paul, Howard Sanders, Wanda Cardinale, and her little dog Minnie Mae. She loved and adored 13 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren, and one great-great grandson.

The Funeral Service will be on Friday, March 1, at 12 noon in the Chapel of Peace located on the grounds of Olinger Crown Hill Mortuary & Cemetery. Visitation will be Thursday, February 28, from 4 to 6 pm at Olinger Crown Hill Mortuary. A reception will be held beginning at 3 pm at Peace Lutheran Church, 5675 Field Street, Arvada CO 80002.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the National Alliance on Mental Health, NAMI Walks Colorado at http://namiwalks.nami.org/teambubba2013 in honor of Jaron Smith.

Clara was born in a tiny village named Shumway in southern Illinois. She was teased regularly by her older brothers and sisters that she was adopted because she was the only blonde, blue-eyed girl in the bunch. As was in the beginning of the 1930’s when she became old enough she often was sent to stay on surrounding farms to help the woman of the house clean and cook. She recalled working for a lady that had a chicken farm and how much she didn’t like the smell of the chickens. When she was about 13 her mother, out of necessity, sent her by train with her name pinned on a paper to her clothes to Chicago to work in the home of a Jewish family. She didn’t know who they were but knew that if her mom sent her there everything would be all right.

Clara continued to live and work in Chicago in her younger days and often spoke of working in a spring factory, in a factory making bobby pins for hair, and in a candy factory. She would ride the famous Chicago “L” train system giving no thought to living in such a big city. Her mom and dad were there also in Chicago and she spoke often of her dad working as a janitor at the Moody Bible Institute.

Now how did Clara meet Howard, you may wonder. Well, she met Howard when she was just 9 or 10 years old when he came to live with her sister Anna and her husband Herbert. Howard, being 8 years older, dated one of her older sisters before heading off to join the Army with her brother Tom during the start of World War II. When the war was over Howard returned and decided she was the one for him so he started courting her. The courtship wasn’t all cupids and butterflies; in fact, she would laugh and tell us she hid from him for as long as she could before she gave in. We’re glad she saw that his persistence showed true love and on March 25, 1948 they were married.

In the mid-1960’s she and Howard moved the entire family to Colorado for Howard’s health. There she worked all the time doing everything from being a bus driver for Wooden Shoe daycare, to a cook at the truck stop, to making candy at Jolly Rancher (her favorite work). We would always know what flavor they were making that day when she came home from work because she would smell like grape, or cinnamon, or cherry. She met great friends there too.

Clara lived in the same house she moved into when she came to Colorado until her death and watched her children get married and have children of their own. For each child born she always made beef and noodles for dinner for the lucky parents. She was always having fun entertaining the little ones and sometimes we would have to council her on not teaching them to do some things like spit off the back porch steps. She always said that if they were sitting on the steps spitting at least she knew where they were. When she got tired of that game she’d give them saltine crackers to “dry up their spitter” and then take them off for another silly game. All of the kids remember her “creamies” for lunch (shell macaroni in evaporated milk and butter). Great fun if she’d throw in peas to hid in the shells.

She was a caring person who was the lighthouse for the family, shining a bright light that always brought us back to her. No matter what was going on, good things or very difficult things, she was always there for her family. She didn’t ask for much just time with the family. Nothing pleased her more than phone calls to the family or seeing them as often as she could. She will be missed and we all loved her dearly.