Sandra Marilyn Hempling

Sandie, Norman’s bride of almost 65 years, was born on the twenty-third of February 1941 in Milwaukee, WI. When she was 16 her father had a business opportunity in California and she, with her parents, moved to Fairfax CA, where she attended Fairfax High School. An unpleasant incident with a boy in the high school prompted them to move to Sherman oaks in the valley.

Norman went to work for RCA in Camden New Jersey after graduating Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He was there 6 weeks when he received a call from his sister telling him that his father had cancer and only had 6 months to live. It was a sad time, but it was also serendipitous that he came back to California. Shortly after he arrived, a neighbor across the street from his parents’ house told him about Sandie and he called her for a blind date on her 19th birthday. She agreed to go out with him.

Norm went to her house and rang the doorbell. She opened the door, looked at him, turned around, and went to her room leaving him standing in the doorway. Her mother followed her to her room where Sandie told her “He’s too short!”. Her mother responded, “What do you want me to do with him? Change your shoes and go out.” That night they went to the Chinese Grumman theater to see “On the Beach” and had a late dinner afterward at Maggiano’s Restaurant.

It was whirl-wind courtship. He went out with Sandie every night for two months and even though her mother said that she couldn’t get married till she was 40 because she was the caretaker of her 3 sibling brothers, the youngest of which was 4 years old, they wed that summer on July 10th , 1960.

They have three children, two boys and a girl. After having two boys they didn’t want to take any chances of having another boy, so they adopted their daughter Karyn. Karyn came to live with them when she was two years ten months old. Norm and Sandie said it was one of the best decisions of their lives. They’ll never forget her fist words to them when they met her in a park, “Do you like my hair?”

Sandie went to work for Bank of America in customer service when all their kids were old enough to be in school. Bank of America initiated online home banking in 1985, and technology challenged Sandie was charged to introduce the service to customers that came to the bank. He put together a crib sheet for her to use and she became a champion seller.

Nordstrom built a new store in Main Place and Sandie applied for a job with them. They accepted her application, and, because of her banking experience, she went to work in Customer Service. After she did several over the top services for customers, like delivering new shoes to a man at his hotel at 1:00am in the morning. The man had left his good shoes on the plane. The man sent a letter to the Nordstrom family praising her effort and she became a “Star Employee” not long after starting her job. The award came with a 33% discount and that’s when he told her that we couldn’t afford to save money.

A few years later, the manager of the store asked employees to come up with ideas to make Nordstrom better. Sandie had the idea to bus in customers from nearby cities that didn’t have a Nordstrom store. Norm, being an engineer experienced in proposal writing, put together a professional looking proposal explaining the idea. The store manager called Sandie into her office and told her to implement the plan. She then asked, “Who is the manager will he be working for?”. The store manager then replied, “It’s your idea, you will be the concierge manager to do it”.

They went on a cruise a few days later and when they came home from the trip, she hired the airport shuttle bus driver that took them to their car. The company leased a bus and the plan became reality. She bussed in customers that had Nordstrom credit cards from as far away as San Luis Obispo. Customers were given coffee and pastry followed by a fashion show. They were told to ask for double receipts on all their purchases. One of the receipts was to be put into a bag for a prize drawing on the bus ride home. Sandie used the drawing receipts to calculate the amount of money she brought into the store. Her yearly additional income for the store was over one million dollars.

they bought our first house in the Valley a year after our marriage. The salesman who sold them drapes for new house windows introduced them to several Jewish families their age. These families became lifelong friends. Some of which they still see today.

In 1973, Norm got a job offer from Ford Aerospace and he and Sandie moved to Villa Park in Orange County. There they met coworker Larry Goldberg and his wife Miriam. They lived a few blocks from each other, so we carpooled to work. One day Larry came to the car with a cake, and he said thank you for celebrating my birthday. That’s when they discovered that Larry and Norm share the same May 26th birth date.

Twenty-three years later, they discovered the Mission Viejo senior community of Palmia. After moving into the community, they joined University Synagogue. Sandie and Norm were members when they bought their new building. They offered to design the temple’s gift shop. Norm designed the room layout, its shelving and its showcases and they opened the shop. Sandie selected and purchased all the items for sale. She and our longtime friend, Rosalie Glaskey, volunteered to operate the shop and they did it successfully for 6 years.

Sandie’s parents were residents of Heritage Pointe not long after the facility opened. Because of that she insisted on us moving here too. They moved there on May 4, 2023, almost 2 years ago.