Helen Tomas passed away peacefully Sunday evening, July 19, 1915. With the supportive services of hospice home care, she was able to remain in her own home and during the past few months received visits from all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren from as far away as England and South Africa. She had time to say goodbye and looked forward to reuniting with her husband, Elbert [Tommy], who preceded her in death in 1999.
Helen is survived by her sisters Roberta Payne and Kathleen Paulsen; her brothers Raymond Walpole, David Stone, and Daniel Stone; her children Chanda Blevans of Corvallis, Oregon, Nathan Thomas of Johannesburg, South Africa, and Matthew Thomas of Chula Vista; her grandchildren Katherine Jones of Flitwick, England, Mary Comoletti of San Angelo Texas, Patricia Stanley of Desert Hot Springs, Ceton Thomas of Lakeside, California, Vander Thomas of Chula Vista, and Brian Thomas of Chula Vista; her great grandchildren Oliver and Amelia Jones, Joey Comoletti, and Knox Leon.
Helen Walpole was born in Minnesota, September 6, 1929. Her family moved to Kansas where her step father raised turkeys, but when a blizzard killed his flock, he decided he had had enough of snow and moved them to San Diego. where Helen has lived ever since, some seventy seven years. She attended Sweetwater High, National City, but left school to marry Tommy Thomas and had their first child just nineteen months later. Within a few years she found she was not cut out to be a homemaker. Convincing her husband and bucking convention, she found full time employment at Rohr Industries in their tool crib. She worked at the same company 37 years steadily advancing first into the payroll office and later to a management position in employee benefits. By dint of her paycheck and with Tommy working two jobs, they bought their first home in National City, later moving to Chula Vista where she lived fifty years in the same house. She and Tommy put all three of their children through college. Afterwards they were able to buy a second home in Lake Tahoe where they spent every winter skiing. Helen was even a ski instructor. All her grandchildren learned to ski from her. But this wasn’t enough adventure. She took up scuba diving in her fifties. Her son, Matt, was a master diver and had his own boat, so when she went on a cruise in the South Pacific, she found she was the most experienced diver other than the dive masters.
Helen described her life as “exciting and amazing,” but what she didn’t say about herself is that she had a kind and generous heart. She was strong willed and courageous, but above all, she was loving.
Helen’s Life Story in Her Own Words
dictated April, 2015
I’ve now lived for 85 years, exciting and amazing years. Sometimes not as
exciting as I thought it would be. The world is changing. When the
atomic bomb was dropped at the end of WWII, I didn’t think it was any
big thing. We were young. The biggest change in my life was two years
later when I had my first baby and was overwhelmed. It was the age of
doing housework in nylons and heels, having coffee with neighbors
because the men were all gone off to work. Laundry was done early
Monday morning and hung out on the line to dry. A woman who didn’t do
her family’s laundry on Monday was slovenly and lazy. I felt I belonged to
the latter class. Keeping a clean house should have been my number one
goal but I hated it. I would rather write stories or letters. I didn’t think
women should vote. Men got together and talked politics; women talked
about hats. We did wear dresses. No women wore plants or slacks at that
time unless they lived on a farm. My freedom came when I got a job.
Elbert wouldn’t tell anyone I worked outside the home. No strong man
would have allowed his wife to do so. However, he could tell I was much
happier working than scrubbing floors. And that started the next thirty-eight
years of my life. I was a working mother and was looked at askance
by the stay-at-home mothers in the neighborhood. We developed our own
pattern of friends especially among those that worked. And we went on
to raise the children beautifully. They raised themselves really. Elbert
and I both smoked. None of our children did. I don’t know why, but I
thank God for it.
Each of the kids graduated from high school and went off to college
away from home. It took a while to set the right number of plates on the
table but we became accustomed to our smaller nest. There was less to
do at the house. We became more interested in theater and musicals,
eventually the opera. Our adult marriage was ever so enjoyable. We
were no longer as poor as church mice. We were able to provide for our
children most of what they wanted. We had extra money finally. We could
spend to go to the zoo, to take a trip. We were comfortable financially.
And from that time on we lived a very pleasant life. We went skiing
because of my brother, Ray, and it took up a lot of our money and time.
And we taught all our granddaughters to ski and they were able to bring
their friends to the condo. Grandma and Grandpa footed the bill for their
special skiing so they didn’t have to wait in line with the ordinary folk.
We often ate lunch at the lodge or we went to a buffet or down at a casino
where they had excellent food. They got to eat their hearts’ desire and I didn’t worry about it. We improved the furnishing and the decorations of the condo when we didn’t have guests. We usually worked around the condo on weekends when the other skiers were on the slopes, then we skied in lonely splendor during the week. We truly enjoyed redecorating the condo. It eventually became the nicest one there. We repainted the dark railroad-tie beams an off-color white that bounced the light around.
In the summer time we put the condo up for rent and came home to Chula Vista. Elbert built furniture in the garage to take to the condo. We had great beach parties all summer long. Aunt Bobbie and I could put together a beach party for thirty in about half an hour. We taught all the children and grandchildren to boogie board and we spent a lot of time in the water enjoying it ourselves. A couple of years later I took up scuba diving. Actually it was Matt who took me; he was training to become a dive master. Elbert was not eager to scuba and he didn’t. He would help by cleaning our wet suits, hanging them up to dry, that sort of thing. I was fifty when I learned to scuba. This was sort of a late blooming period. Elbert was a much stronger skier than I. If we were unsure about the condition of the slope or the snow, he would go down ahead of me and show me how to ski it. I think that’s what he’s done now. He’s gone ahead of me so I’ll be comfortable. I am comfortable now.
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