Regina Helen Siemion

Sometimes outstanding women are not those who head committees or found businesses. They do not perform heroic deeds that make headlines or rise to high office, some like our mother at 103 are outstanding because they survive the rigors of a normal life. They marry, raise children, lose loved ones and see new life come from the earth. They are always looking towards the spring of a new day. Our mother rarely faced life without a joyful smile and a story.

Her history, while perhaps uneventful to some, is rich in our eyes. She was born in Seattle in 1915 to Polish parents Helen and John Rogavich. She attended St. Anne’s grade school and Queen Anne High School (where she majored in journalism and basketball). She married Albin Eugene Siemion in May of 1936. They moved to Bremerton in West Park in 1943. From 1943 to 1947, Tom, Patty, and Phil arrived in rapid succession.

When the children were small and finances confused, she went to work at the Commissioned Officers Club as a waitress. We were latchkey kids, but we didn’t mind---WE KNEW WE WERE LOVED.

Her work history until the death of her husband, Al, in 1966, centered around a variety of waitress jobs in the Bremerton area-The Officers Club and the Hilo drive in; the shift of work of waitressing allowed her to take care of an ill husband and support her children’s activities-wrestling, football, etc. After Al’s death at 50 she took a civil service test and became one of Bremerton’s first female letter carriers.

Retiring at 62, she immediately started to volunteer-too many died at nursing homes, crises clinic didn’t fit, but she found her niche with literacy; first tutoring reading for elementary school students and later helping adults with poor writing skills. She was awarded a Golden Acorn. She also volunteered at the Missouri information center, until it relocated-she couldn’t commute. She read for the blind, making tapes of the Kitsap Sun once a week. A 75-year member of Our Lady Star of the Sea, she was a very spiritual person. Every Saturday she committed an hour of her time to The Perpetual Adoration at “Star”.

We think you get the picture. This BEAUTIFUL 103-YEAR-OLD WOMAN WITH HER PERENNIAL SMILE has served her family and community for years. She has earned a special place in the hearts of all who knew her.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Albin E. Siemion and her son Thomas Albin Siemion and just about everyone else! She is survived by her daughter, Patricia Regina Wagner (husband Ron) of Port Orchard and her son Phillip Eugene of Quilcene. Three grandchildren, Mayla Chantrelle Siemion (Gale), Huckleberry Albin Siemion (Margaret), Sophie Salal Siemion (Mickey) and three great grandchildren Hayden, Aliyah, and Samantha and many nieces and nephews and friends.

Her services are at Our Lady Star of the Sea on May 28th at 11:00 Rosary will precede the service. Support your local florist, send flowers. SHE LOVED FLOWERS.