Jean Fisher

Jean was born August 4, 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio, one of twin girls. Her parents named the twins Jean and Jane. Both girls got double pneumonia before they were three years old. To get away from the extreme winter weather, the family took a trip to San Diego, California. The story is that Jean's mother liked San Diego so much that she and the children never returned to Cleveland. Her father had to return to Cleveland alone, close out his business, sell their home, so he could return to San Diego and the family. A short distance from the house they had rented was a beautiful old two story house on a canyon lot for sale which they bought and restored. This was Jean's home until she married. Jane died in 2001.

The pneumonia had left both girls with asthma. The doctor said the damp climate in San Diego was aggravating the asthma and they should get some dryer air. To do this, the family bought lot in the Whispering Pines subdivision near Julian , California and built a nice cabin. Jean says they would leave San Diego on Friday after school was out and spend the weekend at the cabin. They lived there full time in the summer with their father returning to San Diego every week to care for the home there. There was a riding stable across from the cabin, and their father arranged for the girls to have full time use of two horses. Jean's horse was spotted, and she affectionately called it Patches.

Jean graduated from high school in San Diego and wanted to go to college, but her overprotective mother ruled it out. Instead, they went to a San Diego business school. When world war II broke out, she left her civilian job and went to work at the Industrial Managers Office on Broadway Pier, San Diego. This is a navy organization that arranges work on navy ships at civilian shipyards. She was secretary to navy lieutenant commander Oser. Lee's navy position with the maintenance department of the Pacific Amphibious Force frequently took him to this office to arrange for work on their ships and that is how Jean and Lee met. After about nine months of dating, they were married on Sept. 22, l944.

After the war, Lee was determined to go back to Denver even though he had no job to go back to as he was attending the Colorado School of Mines when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Their first home in Denver was a one room apartment built onto the back of a service station, but Jean never complained. Lee got a job delivering yeast to bakeries for Anheuser Busch. This wasn't much of a job, and when a relative of Jean's said he could get Lee a job with Sears in California , they moved back to California. Jean lived with her folks and Lee rented a room in Inglewood where he was made assistant manager of the customer service department of a new Sears store. Lee didn't like the job. Customers upset over non delivery of unavailable merchandise would come to customer service already angry. Lee quit Sears and got a job at the Oceanside Mobil distributorship where he worked for several years. This was not a bad job, but the style of the manager rubbed Lee wrong. When the chance to return to Denver and operate a service station in Wheat Ridge arose, Lee quit the job in Oceanside. Lee and Jean returned to Denver where Lee operated the service station until he retired. It turned out that the Oceanside job wouldn't have lasted much longer as Mobil closed the Oceanside plant and serviced the stations from San Diego

Jean was an animal lover. They had one or two dogs all of her married life, six English bulldogs, a beagle mix, and an Irish terrier. The last two mentioned were taken in to give them a good home.

Jean was an easy mark for charity solicitors. If one got her on the phone, she always gave in and agreed to donate. Same with written requests that usually told some sad story. She contributed to all kinds of animals, many diseases, Indian organizations, plus local food banks. At one time, she contributed to over sixty charities. She was very business like at this, keeping records of who, when, and how much.

Jean always wanted children. She didn't even want to wait until the war was over to try and get pregnant. She did get pregnant once, but miscarried at about five months,

Jean had more than her share of health problems. Major surgeries included thyroidectomy, mastectomies of both breasts, the second about six years after the first, hysterectomy, and emergency gall bladder removal. It was during this last surgery that her behavior caused both Lee and the doctor to realize something was wrong. That was in 2006, and the doctor started prescribing Alzheimer's medication. The next development was frequent falling. After falling, she couldn't get up even with Lee's help. Neighbors would have been glad to help, but she didn't want to bother them. 911 was usually called, and the paramedics would pick her up and insist on taking her to Lutheran emergency. They would usually check her out and send her home. After her last fall at home, they said the x-rays showed fractures of two lower back vertebrae and said she couldn't return home. That is when she went to MorningStar memory assisted living, May 26, 2010. She continued falling there, and one so severally injured her right knee that she spent the rest of her life in a wheel chair. She was unhappy at MorningStar and said all old people have memory problems. However, the Alzheimer's continued to get worse and she was put on hospice care March l5, 2011. Jean's condition improved under the hospice care. At the end of the six month hospice, she was able to eat by herself, although slowly and sometimes a bit messy. The hospice care was continued after the first six months. She was still confined to the wheel chair when she wasn't in bed, and two workers were required to move her in or out of the wheelchair for any reason. She had two problems in October, 2011. One day she was completely unresponsive for the entire day. She was put back to bed and returned to usual condition the next day. No definite diagnosis as to what was the cause was ever made. The second was a bad cough which was diagnosed as pneumonia. The doctor put her on antibiotics and her cough got better.

Jean's Alzheimer's problems got gradually worse, and she got so she could hardly manipulate the fork and spoon and had to be had fed by Lee, the Visiting Angel or one of the MorningStar caregivers. Her speech was so weak and mumbled that few could understand what she was trying to tell you.

On the weekend of July 8-9, she became unable to swallow. This meant nothing to eat, drink, or pills. In her living will made many years ago, she had specified not to ever use a feeding tube. Consequently, her condition worsened fast, and she passed away the late evening of July 12. Lee knew she was nearing the end and had planned to spend the night with her. However, she gasped three times as Lee sat beside her and she was gone.

Jean Fisher, 1922 - 2012, 89, passed away on July 12th with her husband of 67 years, Lee, by her side. She is also survived by her brother, Hamilton G. Stalnaker Jr. of Lemon Grove, CA, a niece and two nephews also of CA. Visitation, 4-7pm on Wed. with services at 10:00am on Thurs., both at Crown Hill Mortuary. The service will take place in the Tower of Memories where she will be laid to rest.