Doris Helen Thompson

“It’s not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it.”, a quote from one of her favorite shows, the Golden Girls. Doris, was the name friends and most the family called her, but I think Momma and Nana ran a tight race around her home.

Preceded in death by her mother and father Hilda and Alfred Matthys, Husband Richard Thompson, brother Charles Matthys, sister Ruby Harris, and son William Thompson. She is survived by her daughter Suzan Greenawalt, grandsons Justin Greenawalt, Andrew and his wife Tina Greenawalt, and Corey and his wife Jennifer Thompson as well as two Great Grandchildren Mia and Nicholas Thompson, as well as many niece’s and nephews and loving family and friends.

She used to tell us stories of her life on the farm in Mart, born during the Great Depression, and growing up during WW2, and how that shaped her as an individual. She was faithful to her church, calling Robinson Drive United Methodist Church her home. Family was her top priority, and she had a heart bigger than anyone I’ve known. She met one of her lifelong best friends Jean, and her husband Richard during her younger years working at the Red Cross. Later her and Richard would move around while he was working for the Boy Scouts from the time they married in 1950 until 1964 when they returned to Waco and bought a cozy home on Parrott when the neighborhood was still fresh. She was proud of her frugal lifestyle and I don’t think she ever changed anything until it was just broken beyond repair, (I know because my dad and I had to fix most of it - over and over again- after grandpa passed in 88). She was as predictable as the Sun and Moon and only time she’d break her budget or routine was to help one of her children or grandchildren. After Red Cross she worked at MCC and then worked for her cousin’s real estate company, Schreiber Investments. She literally worked long enough to retire from three different places… at 90 years old. That was her level of dedication and conservatism. And she never needed to, she did it because she wanted to make sure the kids and grandkids, and great grandkids, had better options in life than she grew up through.

Unfortunately I think it made us kids all think she was bulletproof and would be as predictable, as the sun, and the moon, as long as the sun and moon still chose to shine. They say the good die young, but she apparently took that as a challenge, and then outran everyone. But regardless her stamina, consistency, and ability to never age (it felt like), time outruns us all, even her.

We are all here, because of her, and she would say “don’t waste a dime on my behalf, y’all just burn my body and go on with life” because that’s exactly who she was. And after seeing all her childhood friends, siblings, husband, son, and many coworkers, pass on, she was ready. She had given her whole life purpose to providing, her love language was acts of service, so the moment she couldn’t work, she was ready to reunite with those she missed deeply. And her only fear bigger than loneliness, was being a burden. And now, she no longer has to carry the worry, pain, or loneliness. And for that, we celebrate her ability to finally, and peacefully, rest.