Dorothy Farwick

On Wednesday, September 27th, Dorothy Farwick (nee MacRunnel) left this earthly life to join her Savior and those she's missed for so long in Heaven. She is survived by her beloved husband of nearly 67 years, Darrell Farwick. Her children Brent, Kenneth (Susan), Katherine Coronado (David) and Patricia Mlakar (Martin) miss her dearly. The same can be said for her seven grandchildren: Gregory, Garrett (Jessica) and Steven Mlakar, Casey (Taylor) and Kobbe Farwick, and Kimberly and Kara Coronado. Great-grandson Zachary Mlakar and great-granddaughter Peyton Farwick brought special joy to the last two years of Dorothy's life. Dorothy's younger sister Shirley Squire, and her youngest brother John are the only two siblings (of eight) left to mourn the loss of their much-loved big sister.

Dorothy's story began on a farm outside the tiny farming town of Ruthton, Minnesota, where on the 28th of December in 1930, Dorothy and Worley Jay MacRunnel welcomed their firstborn, a delightful dark-haired baby girl they named Dorothy. She was the first of their eight children. Dorothy's mother, who immigrated from Kampen, the Netherlands at the age of 11, was also named Dorothy, or Dirkje in Dutch, as was her grandmother.

The family blossomed to include seven more children over the years. From oldest to youngest, they were Arend, Eleanor Jean Van Dyke, Charles, Worley James (Jim), Shirley Squire, Arlene Duncan, and John.

Before Dorothy started her elementary education in a one-room country schoolhouse, her parents moved to a farm close to the nearby town of Tyler. The little school featured hand-pumped water and a shared tin-dipper. At times, some of the children rode their horses or ponies to school. Dorothy was in love with farming, small-town life, and her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whom she accepted into her heart at the ripe old age of five. She couldn't wait to tell her mother. Those three things -- small Minnesota towns, especially Tyler, farming, and Jesus Christ would remain dear to her heart forever. Though she would later move to California and experience great joy raising her family there, she would remain forever sentimental about small-town Minnesota farm life.

In 1947, Dorothy's parents and their eight children moved to California so that her father Worley might more quickly recuperate from a severe illness. Life in what seemed to teenage Dorothy like the big city was overwhelming. Back home, at Tyler High School the senior class tended to have about 40 students. At Redlands High School it was more like 800. So after less than a year, Dorothy and her brother Arend headed back to Tyler.

While in high school, Dorothy loved working with and for local farmer's wives who were pregnant or who had recently given birth. In 1948, during her junior year at Tyler High School, Dorothy found employment (during her non-school hours) helping Helen Guida, the wife of Tyler farmer Don Guida. Helen had recently given birth and needed help with home and hearth. It was on those temporary jobs, cooking for family and crew, that Dorothy honed the considerable cooking skills she had first learned from her mother.

On the Guida farm, there was a tall, very lean, redheaded hired hand by the name of Darrell Farwick. One afternoon, in December of 1948, up near the farmhouse, Darrell happened to glance down at the end of the long dirt drive. He quickly took notice of the pretty brown-haired girl with the slight frame. It was the first time he recalled catching sight of the girl who would, in less than three years become his wife. Dorothy soon took notice of him -- after all, she would be cooking for him at least twice a day as part of her new duties.

However, Darrell had gotten a taste of California around 1941 when he and his two younger siblings had accompanied their widowed father to Santa Maria, California. Jobs were scarce during the Great Depression, and California was not too far to travel for a guaranteed carpentry job. Warm winters, sunshine, and an abundance of oranges were enough to steal young Darrell's heart. The California stay was cut short by an auto accident that took the life of his younger brother, Charles Joseph Farwick, or Bub as he was affectionately called. Darrell's mother had succumbed to cancer a bit more than a year earlier. In about a year and a half, the family of five had become a family of three: father Bernard "Ben" Farwick, Darrell, and Bub's surviving twin sister, Delores "Rusty" Purper. Those sudden losses forever shaped the hearts of both Darrell and Delores -- both would remain fiercely devoted to family and extended clan the remainder of their lives.

Darrell left Minnesota and the sweet company of Dorothy twice to work for Kaiser Steel in Fontana, Ca. After his last winter at Kaiser, Darrell was lonely for Dorothy and returned to Minnesota. He and Dorothy joined hearts and hands in holy matrimony in an October 10th, 1951 ceremony at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Tyler.

The happy couple left for California almost immediately after the wedding reception. They settled first in a small apartment just a stone's throw from the Santa Fe Railway Yard in San Bernardino. The AT&SF Railway Co. was Darrell's newest and final employer. Their firstborn, Brent, was born in February 1953, a week and a half before they moved to the east end of Mentone, California to a small place nestled up against the Zanja Creek and blessed with abundant shade. Their little toddler loved to play in the tiny, shade-covered creek. The trio next moved to a larger house and yard near the boundary of San Bernardino and Colton. The new home was quite close to another of Santa Fe's two railyards in San Bernardino. There, they delighted in the arrival of fraternal twins, Kenneth and Katherine Farwick.

Finally, in 1955, the family of five purchased a house and large lot in what was then an unincorporated area of San Bernardino County just east of San Bernardino. In May of 1955, Dorothy and Darrell welcomed the final addition to their family, little Patricia Ann. Dorothy would call that site home for the remainder of her earthly life. On September 27, 2018, Dorothy entered the presence of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. She spent not even a single day of her life in a rest home or convalescent hospital; a fact for which her children and husband thank God. Her passing was swift, less than a day in the hospital, and peaceful. Darrell's deepest wish, not to die first and leave his sweetheart of nearly 70 years behind was suddenly and unexpectedly granted. He was by her side at the end.

The small pasture behind their new abode was home to a milk cow and a calf for many years, but would eventually give way to three new houses, all built by Darrell. Dorothy's days were full, just the way she liked them. She might milk the cow in the early morning, fix breakfast for her flock of four and see them off to school. She was active in the PTA, as well as being the Secretary-Treasurer of the Mission School District for a while. Since all that was light work for a Minnesota farm girl, she also taught a Sunday School class, served as president of the Women's Missionary Fellowship at the local C&MA church that she and Darrell not only helped found but helped to construct. Dorothy also supported Teen Challenge, a Christian ministry devoted to helping young men break free of addictions. In addition to monetary support, she donated dozens of hand-sewn quilts to that ministry. It took a lot to fill her day.

Dorothy never lost touch with her small-town farm roots. She would always prefer a wringer washer and a clothesline to the more modern washer-dryer combo. She filled the colorful lunch buckets her young children carried to elementary school with sandwiches made of home-made bread buttered with home-churned butter. She was also an excellent seamstress who made a significant portion of her young children's clothes.

Her melt-in-your-mouth post-church Sunday afternoon dinners (nearly always home-grown roast beef) were legendary among extended family and fellow parishioners. Tables set for 15 to 20 diners were common, and if another 5 or 10 dropped in unexpectedly, it never seemed to phase her. Somehow she made it all work with no fuss. Dorothy and Darrell's home would, over time, become the nexus for a growing extended family clan from both Dorothy and Darrell's sides of the family; cousins abounded.

When Dorothy's children were reaching Junior High School age, she went back to school to pursue her life-long dream of being a registered nurse. She became both a nurse and in a short while, a nursing supervisor. Dorothy loved peace and hated conflict. So it is, perhaps, unsurprising that in all her years as a nursing supervisor she only wrote up one nurse, and that very discreetly. Dorothy's approach was to nurture and mentor, not to pull rank. And though she held firm ideas about right and wrong, many a young nurse sought her advice and found in Dorothy a gentle, steady counselor ready to listen and to help.

Dorothy taught her children to love God and others. She raised her kids to understand that bad deeds demanded that one seek forgiveness not only from God but that one must ask forgiveness from those sinned against. If necessary, restitution had to be made. Dorothy's was not a convenient Christianity -- it came with costs, and it changed its followers.

We, Dorothy's children, do not understand why we were blessed with such an exceptionally loving and capable mother. However, as long as we live, we will remain grateful to her. Go with God, Mom. We love and miss you so much!