On December 4, 2021 our mother and grandmother, Dorothy Jean Macpherson Inglis McCall passed away after a brief struggle with a broken hip. Those who have known her have described her as loving, caring, game, solid, organized, tolerant, open, compassionate, indomitable, adventuring, and a spirited woman. She was a person who continuously strived for education, the environment and a loving world throughout her 97.9 years on this earth. Though born in Syracuse, New York, she spent most of her young life in Lincoln, Nebraska, moving to Denver, Colorado during her early school years. She attended the University of Redlands in California during the war years where she reconnected with Richard Inglis, a childhood acquaintance in Lincoln. They were married on July 24, 1945 and returned to the Denver area to raise their family: Jean (Timothy) Vick, Richard Inglis Jr and James (Patricia) Inglis. She taught school, supported her church and had small jobs before retiring with her husband to a life of exploration and travel. They moved to Grand Junction, Colorado in 1989. She and Richard celebrated four beautiful grandchildren; Andrew (Laurie) Vick, Laura (Fahkri) Alaghbash, Kimberly (Cody) Lawhorn and Brian Inglis, loving and visiting them as often as possible. Richard and Dorothy were members of Christ Congregational Church (UCC) in Denver and First Congregational Church (UCC) in Grand Junction. She was widowed in 1996 when Richard passed while on a trip to Alaska. She married James McCall in 2001 and was blessed by Jim’s new family: Beth (Rich) Aldrich and her adult children Kelly (Mark) McNelly and Luke (Jessica) Sullivan. with many great-grandchildren. She was an organized and loving homemaker, teacher, gardener, seamstress, knitter, keyboard player, reader, hiker, and botanist. She volunteered for the Head Start program in Denver, the Mesa County Library and the Western Colorado Botanical Gardens in Grand Junction. At a gathering next summer on the family property she will be remembered with singing the “Mountain Hymn” with words created by her Mother-in-law and the poem Bristlecone Pine by Hugh Preston:
Way up in the mountains
On the high timberline
Lives a twisted old tree
Called the bristlecone pine
The wind there is bitter
It cuts like a knife
And it keeps that tree holding
On for dear life
But hold on it does
Standing it's ground
Standing as empires
Rise and fall down
When Jesus was gathering
Lambs to his fold
This tree was already
A thousand years old
Now the way I have lived
There ain't no way to tell
When I die if I'm going
To heaven or hell
So when I'm laid to rest
It would suit me just fine
To sleep at the feet of
The bristlecone pine
For as I would slowly
Return to the earth
What little this body
Of mine might be worth
Would soon start to nourish
The roots of that tree
And it would partake of
The essence of me
And who knows but that as
The centuries turn
A small spark of me might
Continue to burn
As long as the sun did
Continue to shine
Down on the limbs of
The bristlecone pine
Now the way I have lived
There ain't no way to tell
When I die if I'm going
To heaven or hell
So I'd just as soon serve out
Eternity's time
Asleep at the feet of
The bristlecone pine
Asleep at the feet of
The bristlecone pine.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.allnuttloveland.com for Dorothy's family.
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