Oma or "Me" as I used to call her, was quite a card.  When I would call her on the phone and she would answer, I'd say "who is this" and she would answer "me".  So I would say hi "me".  After that it stuck.  So she was always "me" to me.
Lisa was a kind and loving soul.  Always looking out for others but never worrying about herself.  She overcame a lot in her life and I was blessed to be a part of hers.
For many years I did her yard work for her.  She does not know it, but she was one of the biggest funding sources for the RR Dragonettes and cheerleaders every year.  Each Saturday when I would mow her grass, she would not let me leave without stuffing $20 or $30 in my pocket.  I'd say "Me", you don't have to pay me and she would say "this is for your gas money"...right.  So, on my way home I would stop at the car washes the RR drill team and cheerleaders would have and give them "Me"'s money.  Who knew?!  :)
I will miss the "high five" calls after scores in the UT football games.  Rest in peace "Me".  You will be greatly missed!

Mom, it's been just over a month now and it's still hard to believe you are not here.  I miss you so very much, but I know you are free and happy and out of pain.  I have so many of your personal belongings and photos around me now, but they can't take the place of a warm hug from you.  You always wanted all of your children to know how much you loved them.  We did mom, we knew we had the best Mom ever.  We will miss you always.  Till we meet again, I Love you.

As a nervous newlywed to her daughter Debbie, I started calling this wonderful woman Mrs. Chapman. She corrected me and said please, call me mom, you are part of our family now. From that point on, and for the next 38 years I was privledged to have her in my life. She gave me nothing but unconditional love always, no matter what happened. I never felt like she was a mother-in-law. Not one moment. And I am so proud to call her MOM. She was one of a kind and will be remembered always and sorely missed each and every day.
I love you, and I will see you again.
MOM
Your son
Ken

My mother was an amazing woman with the biggest heart who truly loved her family so much.  We talked and spent time with each other every day and she was an intergral part of my life.  She told me there were no unspoken words between and when it was her time to go she would wrap her wings around me and watch over us.  Although I know she is no longer in pain and reunited with her family in heaven I miss her so much. I am so grateful for all the memories we have together and one day we will be reunited.  Love you Mom, Debbie.

Amazing. When I think of my Oma, I think, wow how blessed am I to have had the privelege of knowing such an amazing woman. You affected my life in so many positive ways and helped me to become the type of person I knew I could be. Your love and support were always unwavering. For me, I do not mourn that you have moved on to a better place but rather I mourn for the fact that I won't be able to make anymore memories with you. I have so many and yet I want more. There are so many great ones. I laugh when I think of the times we would visit and as I would leave you would slip me money and tell me to go get myself a sandwich. Always the same, every time, go get yourself a sandwich. When you lived with us when I was in high school you always had me help you dye your hair on Saturday nights. Going to Germany with you for 2 weeks and carrying your luggage through the airports, weighed down by German Doiles on the way back was the best time we've ever spent together. I learned the stories of snoring were true after that trip. It was amazing to see that other side of you as I met the other part of our family. When I labored with Cora, it was a hard 24 hours, and you stayed by my bed diligently and held my hand for hours while I know I squeezed the crap out of it... But you never let go. I love you for everything you were to me, to my husband, and to my children. You live on through all of us. Your fighting spirit and zest for life is eternal in our hearts. Ich liebe dich Oma. Always.

Words alone cannot express the emptiness I feel following the passing of my mother, Lisa Chapman.  For most of my childhood, my mother was a singular presence in my life.  My father, an officer in the Air Force, led a life where duty carried him around the world, often leaving my mother and I for long periods of time.  During these times, we came to depend on each other greatly, and she always make me feel safe and secure, always treating me as her baby.  As I grew into an adult, well over 6 feet tall and with the weight to match, she continued to treat me as her baby boy.  Though my own life with my wife and my children carried me to another city, my mother was never far from my thoughts.  She was an incredible presence that greatly shaped the man, the husband, and the father I have become.  I will miss her deeply.  Love you, Mom!

Debbie- My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I have very fond memories of your mom.

Jahna and I will always remember her amazing spirit and the way she encouraged us to squeeze every shred of joy out of life that we can.  I was honored to be able to do the eulogy at the funeral.  I did my best to capture who she was so, for those who were unable to attend the funeral, here is the text of that eulogy:

 Live, Love, and Be Happy.  Almost seven years ago to the day, Oma and I were sitting next to one another in a Mexican restaurant here in Austin, out for dinner in celebration of my mom's birthday.  We all were waiting on our food and reading the birthday cards being passed around the table.  When the one I had written to my mom came around to Oma, she began snickering uncontrollably when she read what I wrote.  I can't remember whatever it was that was on the card, but it was then that she turned to me and said this is what she wanted for her eulogylaughter.  Don't make it sad, she said, make it fun.  Life is about being happy.  You've gotta do what comes from in here, thumping a finger on my chest as she said it.  That was her request, her specific words, Make it happy, don't make it sad.  Make me laugh

So, in that spirit, this won't be a eulogy in the traditional sense, it will instead be a celebration through storyfour stories to be specific.  One story from each of her four surviving children.

The first of those stories is from her son Greg.  This one takes place several decades back.  In this story, for whatever reason, Oma told Greg she wanted him to take on the look of and dress like a cowboy the next time he came back home to visit them.  To trade in the golf pants for, as Greg put it, $40 jeans and $20 wranglers.  Now, if all that was needed to become a cowboy in this story were to change pants, then it might have ended much differently, but this cowboy needed a beard to be complete.  This is where the problem arose.  Whereas the Marlboro man's beard comes in full and bushy, by his own admission, Greg's beard comes in looking like a Calico cat with a bad case of mange.  But, being the good son, Greg grew out the facial hair anyway.

So, on the night he returned home, and after numerous flight delays which made it such that he didn't get in until 2:30 am, he was greeted by two thingstemperatures in the neighborhood of 20 degrees and a skeptical Grandpa George who, gesturing towards the calico beard, said something to the effect of, you think she is going to let you in the house with that.  Well, sure enough, Oma is waiting on the doorstep when they pull into the drive.  Expecting praise and excitement, Greg is instead greeted by stern German looks from Oma who said, you're not coming in this house until you've that shaved off.  She ran inside to grab clippers leaving Greg standing on the doorstep, confused in the cold.  That is Greg's story.

Whereas Greg's story took place over the course of one night, Patty's story took place over the course of several years, decades even.  If you were to Google the question of, What percentage of the adult population in the US snores,and I haveyou would find that roughly 50% of the adult population snores.  Oma on the other hand never once snored in her lifeor at least that is what she would tell you if you ever asked her.  Now, Oma having lived with us for a year or so during the 90s and her bed being one room down the hall from mine, I personally can attest to the fact that the walls between our rooms would occasionally shudder from the vibration, but that is beside the point.  So, with neither side willing to concede, this debate went on for years until, one night, she fell asleep in the living room recliner and not in her bedroom.  Within a matter of minutes, the walls were vibrating.  So, David and Patty rush off from the couch to other room where the video camera is kept.  They started the recording in the other room and, because of that, the footage ends up looking something like a Safari hunt on the National Geographic channel.  They slowly creep up from behind, the snoring growing louder the closer they get to the living room until, finally, they are poised over her.  The shot is captured, the evidence is now tangible.  The next morning, when they show it to her, she still attempts her visceral German objection, but you could see a wry smile hiding behind the objection.  She was as tickled as we were, even if she wouldn't admit it.  That's what Patty remembers, someone who was always willing to find something to laugh at in any situation.

Now, in as much as it would have been fun to tote the camera around in Patty's story, it is in Debbie's story that I would like to have been a fly on a casino elevator wall.  One of the things that Oma enjoyed most when it came to traveling was playing the slot machines at a casino.  So, when it came time to take her somewhere for her to have fun, it was a natural choice for Debbie to take her to Las Vegas.  Now, for any of you who have been to Las Vegas, you know that there is a fair bit of walking involved.  In fact, the Las Vegas Strip by itself is four miles long.  Her knees being what they were, that amount of walking was out of the question.  So, as a solution, they rented her one of those motorized scooters for her to get around.  Now, if the story ended right here, imagining Oma zooming around on a scooter weaving in and out of tourists would be enough to make me laugh, but it is what she did with the scooter that takes this story to the next level.  We've all been in elevator banks.  It's not as though there is a whole lot of room to speed up in that small space but, as it turns out, the throttle on this scooter might have been a little more than Oma could handle.  According to Debbie, Oma had just enough room to inadvertently turn that scooter into a battering ram.  Oma pressed down the throttle and, with all the precision of a dumptruck, she crashed that thing into the elevator walland she ran over Debbie's toes in the process.  Despite all of that, despite damaged casino property, despite crushed toes, and despite the inability to master the throttle on a scooter, there was nothing but uncontrollable laughter afterwards.  They chose laughter instead of worry.  And that is one of Debbie's favorite memories.

Speaking about ramming things makes for a wonderful segue to our next story, George's story.  When George was 16 or 17, he was driving the family Buick Riviera.  It was the first luxury car they ever had, and needless to say it wasn't cheap.  Well, George was driving the Riviera home one day and was absentmindedly thinking about a girl at school, and he wasn't paying attention very well.  He whipped the car into the garage and, as he did, he nicked the left side mirror.  He pulled forward a bit, opened the driver's door and got out, and looked at the mirror knowing he was in trouble.  Just screwed up the family's brand new car.  How could this day possibly get any worse?

It was at that point that he noticed that the car was in the garage at a bad angle, so he sat back down and put the car in reversewithout closing the driver's door.  As he backed up, the driver's side door wedged itself against the inside jamb of the garage door.  With the two doors now wedged against one another, he stopped, mortified.  The door is now damaged.  The side mirror is damaged.  How could this day possibly get any worse?

He pulled the car forward and tried to close the door.  He yanked it hard, and the door slammed shutshattering the driver side window.  Glass everywhere.  At this point, George makes a wise move and gives up.  He left the car (in ruins) in the garage and went inside to see Oma.  Now at this time, Oma was recovering from carpal tunnel surgery and she was on a strong course of pain medication.  The stuff that leaves you only mildly aware of your surroundings.  So George is telling Oma about the car, and her only response is That's nice honey.  Your dad will be home soon.  You can tell him.  Okay.  So Grandpa George comes home.  And George tells him about the car.  At first Grandpa George thinks he is kidding, and honestly I can't blame him.  That series of unfortunate events sounds like something straight out of a movie, but then George takes Grandpa George into the garage to survey the damage.  At this point, Grandpa George flips out.  He is reading George the riot act for having ruined the new luxury car. And then he leaves the room.  So here George is, back inside sitting with Oma and completely in tears over what he had done.  Really it's Oma's car and yet, there she sits, cool as a cucumber.  George looks at her and says Mom, why aren't you mad at me???  And her response:  Oh honey, I am on drugs.  I'll be mad at you later  And in the midst of George's tears he burst out laughing.  As it turns out, she never got mad at him for it.  To use George's words, that just wasn't her style.

Her style was what she told me about at the restaurant that day.  It was what she said she wanted for me and for each of you, to quote Live, Love, and Be Happy.  She would have us know that we all have the disposition to choose our feelings, to not allow ourselves to feel as victims of things that happen in our lives so much as people with the power to choose laughter and love, no matter the situation.  It was true in what she said that day at the restaurant, in the stories of each of her children today, and in the countless other stories that each of us here could tell.  As we move forward from here, she would want us to share these stories, keep one another in our hearts, and as she told me that day at the restaurant, above all else, Live, Love, and Be Happy.

She was a great lady -- and a key member of the old AWS "family"-- lots of good memories that Carol and I have of her

Lisa and my Mom knew each other before George and I ever met and fell in love. Both were children during WWII when living to the next day was never guaranteed. Lisa lost a twin brother, loved ones, neighbors, and friends to the terror of the Third Reich. She grew up hungry, scared, and abused by a Russian soldier. In spite of all the hard times and tragedies, Lisa maintained her sweet nature. She was a survivor.

Without ever having met his parents, I accepted a young George Chapman's marriage proposal on our 3rd date when I was 17. Meeting Lisa solidified what my heart had already decided. She treated me like a princess, and I was completely enamored with her immediately. Her warmth and kindness to this shy young woman who loved her son was more than I could have ever hoped for. Marrying into such a large family has been the best decision I ever made, and I wouldn't have without Lisa Chapman.

When George and I visited together she always slipped us a $50 bill which might have well have been $1000 to us. Her encouraging words, gentle guidance, and unconditional love meant having a 2nd mother I could count on. To Mom I'd like to say thank you for raising such a kind, gentle man with a heart of gold just like yours. 29 yrs of your love and guidance weren't nearly enough, but I will see you again in Heaven. 

My favorite story of Oma was visiting her in Austin before we were married. Having come from a Danish family Christmas is not complete with a desert made of whipped cream and slivered almonds. Being 20 yrs old I was quite confident I could make it for The Chapman family. I was horribly  unsuccessful, but she ate the Ris alamande and continued to praise it in spite of it really being soup.

Thank you for loving me and accepting me immediately.

When I moved in across the street in the winter of 2002 Lisa was so kind to me. I was recently divorced after 25 years of marriage and was not looking forward to the holidays. She was so sweet and visited with me often. That Christmas she hand delivered a holiday floral arrangement to me at my office that included a small white teddy bear. It was one of the sweetest things - she will be missed and I am sorry that I did not spend more time with her. My sincere condolences.  Margie Anthes, 16817 Sabertooth.

Debbie as your sister-in-law I understand  your time of sadness as I too lost my mother. Mothers have a very special place in our souls & we must go on through life with the wonderful memories we keep. I last saw your mother at Lisa's wedding & she was having a wonderful time. Ken I know you are also realizing the loss & I am thinking of you along with Lisa & Kenny. 
Much love to all of  you,
Jan

Lisa je was een lieve vrouw wij zijn blij dat we je nog hebben gesproken in Mei 2015 bij deze condoleren wij de hele familie met het overlijden van Lisa.

Lisa is/was een vriendin van Anna Best ze was een lieve en vriendelijke vrouw, wij zijn blij dat we haar in de maand Mei 2015 nog gesproken hebben en op onze manier afscheid va haar hebben kunnen nemen. Bij deze condoleren wij de hele familie en wensen jullie sterkte.

You will forever be part of the treasured memories of our visits with Matthew to "Grandma" and "Grandpa's" home in Texas. With heavy hearts in Maryland we wish peace to all...today and always.

Tom, Lori, and Matt Best

Lisa was truly an amazing lady.she was there for me when I lost my husband. We sat in her home & drank coffee and just enjoyed our time together.She was there for me with kind words & a big hug..I will never forget her & will miss her very much..rest with the angels my dear friend..love..Linda Witherspoon

Debbie my heart aches for you and your family during this time. Your mom was a very special lady and loved by everyone who knew her. May God keep you and your wonderful family in his embrace at this difficult time. My deepest condolences - Hugs.

Lisa is my Aunt and have many fond memories of her growing up and her heavy accent. I used to love to just sit and listen to her talk. One of my memories is staying with u all when you lived in Jenison and she showed me how to clean the silver. Not sure why I rememver that, but I do. Miss u all and I am truly sorry for your loss. I am sure my parents are re-united with her. ❤❤

Debbie and Family,
My fondest memories of Lisa are when she came into the bank where we worked.  Always smiling and cheerful with something funny to say.  She would bring us chocolate back from her trips to Germany.  She was an amazing woman that will dearly missed.  Sending blessings your way to help you through these saddest of times.

Lisa was an amazing Air Force wife and Mother. In reflecting back on our 36 year career in the military, I count 23 different times she had to move and establish a home for our growing family of four children. Never a complaint and always a home that was spotless and had the warmth needed in a home. All the while accepting the increasing responsibilities that grew as our career flourished. Not many people knew that she and my first sergeant would go down to the local stores on Saturday mornings in Omaha to collect goods and clothes for our young Airmen and their families who were underpaid and in need at that time. As my responsibilities grew, she more than matched my service by what she did for our Air Force family. Now her moving days are over, the pain is behind her, and she has, I am confident, been welcomed into the kingdom of heaven by our Lord. Rest in peace, Lisa. Well-done!

Lisa was a great friend to me and my family for many years. She always brightened our lives.  I was always amused with the things that she and my wife Lynnette would bring back from barn and garage sales.  Our station wagon would be loaded inside and a number of things would be tied on top in the luggage rack.  It reminded me of the American pioneers traveling west with their covered wagons loaded with their belongings.  We hope our prayers will help you through your grief.   Lisa will be missed by a multitude of her friends.

OBITUARY

Lisa M. Chapman

January 9, 1934 – July 10, 2015

Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Funeral Home & Cemetery

Show your support

Add a Memory

Share Obituary

Get Reminders

Services