Remembrances

Alex Remembers his Grandpa

Memorial Service November 3, 2007

Some called him Harry, others called him Pop…but I only knew him as grandpa.

I’m Alexander George Botham, one of the middle grandchildren. I get my middle name from my Grandpa, Harry George Botham. I’m honored to take two of my names from this great man.

Here are a few of my fond memories…

• Grandpa always had a pocket knife….a sharp pocket knife

• Grandpa was a teacher…Horseshoes, 2 for a leaner and 3 for a ringer…Cribbage card game, 15 two, 15 four…and spending one summer at Blue Lake, helping me break a bad speech habit I had

• Grandpa would sometimes let the ladies go shopping and he would stay back to work or to take a quick nap. Sometimes I would stay with him

• Grandpa was a problem solver, and he took pride in his work…I’ll remember a bathroom shelf in my parents house, a mouse extension tray at Grandma’s computer, a dish drying tray in the RV, and a custom dog perch for Binky, so she could look out of the front window

• Grandpa was a great listener…. He would lean forward, listening intently with constant eye contact. It was clear that you genuinely has his complete attention.

• Grandpa enjoyed taking a walk and loved his dogs, all of them

• Grandpa was a singer; I can clearly hear him and grandma singing. We’re travelin’ along….singn’ a song…side by side

• Grandpa was proud of his kids and grandkids and would brag on them to anyone that would listen

• Grandpa was open minded, teaching his family to be respectful and welcoming to everyone no matter their color or background

• Grandpa always seemed willing to have his picture taken. Whether a serious family pose…joking funny pose or while in action working on a project with someone

• Grandpa lived in service of others, and was a kind gentle spirit

I’m privileged to be a part of this family that grandpa and grandma built.

Thank you grandpa for everything you gave, I will miss you.

Leslie Remembers His Father, Harry George Botham

Memorial Service November 3, 2007

He was born March 13, 1925 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Died October 28, 2007, at Rogue Valley Medical Center, in Medford, OR. He was 82.

• He was married to Shirley for 60 years.

• He and his family were very proud to become citizens of the USA in 1963.

• Harry loved and was very proud of his family

• He has three kids, Leslie, Arlena, and Martin

• Six grandchildren- Sean, Adrian, Alex, Crystal, Ilene, and Aaron,

• Six great grandchildren- Kyla and Stacey, Paris, Phillip, Gilbert, and Payton. All of them are present today

• Among his descendents, there are:

  • a teacher, an engineer, business owners, entrepreneurs, a researcher, an investment adviser, a marketer, a technology expert, and students

  • There are BS, MS, and PhD degree holders

  • People of different faiths

  • People of different cultures. When we take a family picture, it looks like the UN, and we are proud of it

  • Grandson Alex has created a web site to honor his grand father. It contains pictures, stories, video, and postings from his friends and family. You are encouraged to visit the site, enjoy the material there, and post your own picture or memory. The web address is listed on these handouts, and it is just www.HarryBotham.com.

Harry went off to World War II at 18, just out of high school. He was part of the Canadian Army. He was captured by the German army in Holland and was a prisoner of war. They made him work under ground in a salt mine, which probably kept him alive during that cold winter. All the time we were kids at home, he never spoke about the war. He kept his war stuff was in a duffle bag. About 43 years after the war, which is well after all his kids were gone from the home, he decided to make an audio tape of his life for his grand children. One part of the tape was his story about his time as a POW. I had to get the tape from my own son to hear his story. We posted Harry’s Pieces of Time as an audio file on the web site.

Harry told his war story recently to the Men’s group at church. We posted his notes on the web site for you to read.

After the war, Harry came back home to Vancouver, Canada. He met my mother Shirley on a blind date. It was a Thursday night. He called back to follow up with her on Saturday. At first, she did not remember who Harry was. It’s Harry from Thursday night. Good thing he called back, and good thing she remembered who he was, because none of us would be here today if they hadn’t hit it off. The story “Harry from Thursday Night” is posted on the web site.

On the third date, his future father-in-law called him “son”, and Shirley knew her future was sealed. My grandfather made him promise that he would wait five years before getting married. He didn’t.

Here are some things I remember about my Dad

• Cub scout and boy scout projects, merit badges, and outings. Dad was our scout master for a time

• Family camping trips

• Sometimes he took us on some of his business trips, and we had to pick motels that had swimming pools so that the kids could swim in the morning

• He let Arlena and me build “forts” in the back yard and he let us believe that we could have a horse in the back yards by saving up enough coupons from comic books

• He let us have hobbies in the garage (electronics with me and photography with Marty)

• When we were growing up, he went to junior college to improve himself and to earn a better living. He was proud to complete the course and receive his certificate

• He helped me get a job surveying with the Forrest service when I was in high school. That helped me confirm my interest in engineering.

• He and Mom always encouraged us to broaden our horizons and made sure that happened by exposing us to people that could increase our opportunities

• He loved his wife. He always introduced her as “My lovely bride.” Isn’t that romantic?

• He built our first house in Vancouver Canada (the tar paper house) Mom relates how cold it was that first winter with the baby (me) living in it with just tar paper siding up

• Whatever home we lived in, he always made improvements to add more room and make it better to live in. At our home in San Mateo, CA, he built a wall down the middle of the bedroom so that Martin and I could have our own bedroom spaces.

• He was not afraid to take risks and that he worked hard to better his family

• He worked as

  • A fire extinguisher technician (Fleck Brothers)

  • A salesman of fire extinguishers and fire fighting equipment (General Fire and Red Comet)

  • He tried his hand in restaurant business (with his brother-in-law in OR- The Hungry Whale, and his son in CA- Princeton Seafood company). They had cute mottos for the restaurants

    • Bigger better burgers with Gas (Hungry Whale); and

    • We serve crabs and other fine people (PSF Co)

  • He and Mom drove for Hertz car rental company driving/delivering cars around the country

  • Both of them were Census Takers

• Helped other people fix things (handyman projects)

• Made friends wherever he went (it helps to have an outgoing wife, and a cute dog)

• People appreciated his wit and humor.

• Struggled with dementia and the loss of his leg, and that he was comforted by visits and prayers from Pastor Erv, during this time

• Participated in his Men’s group and that he enjoyed his bible study class

• He listened to O’Riley every night on the TV, and that he struggled somewhat to live peacefully with his conservative leanings surrounded by strong liberal women

• As part of the 50th year celebration of the end of the World War II, he went back with other Canadian soldiers to Holland. The Canadians had liberated Holland. He visited the place where he was taken prisoner and he was honored by the people and the mayor of that town.

• He was a happy man, and that he made others around him happy

• People appreciated his wit and positive outlook

• He was a moral man. He lost one job because he wasn’t willing to be as promiscuous as the other salesman wanted him to be. I remember him inviting a nude lady to float her air mattress a little further upstream, away from our family. As a young teenager, I thought that he should at least let her float by.

Here are some things I learned from my Father

• To choose wisely

• Invest for the long term

• To respect women.

• To love my country

• To give back to my community

• To be honesty and in integrity

• To live within my means

• To be responsible

Whenever I do an exercise that starts out making a list of the men and qualities that I admire, he is first on that list

Here are some more fun things that I remember

• He used to make our school lunches, lining up all the pieces of bread so that he could put on the ingredients efficiently. He called it lining up all the soldiers

• He let me rebuild car engines in the driveway

• He sold me my first car (the family Rambler American with folding down seats) for $1

• Encouraged me to have jobs to earn and save my own money

• He was the fastest two-fingered typist I ever met

• He was present to people. You had his attention when you were talking to him.

• He liked to take the ladies to lunch. I think he was a flirt with the ladies, but there was only one for him, Shirley

Here are a few Daddy Sayings

• I can run faster backwards than you can run forwards, and for a lot of years, he could.

• These two he repeated from his father-in-law

  • Taste it, taste it, bless your heart, it’s like a bowl of sugar

  • What you can’t eat, rub in your hair

• FHB (family hold back) That is what you affirmed before company arrived, so that there would be enough food and appetizers for the company

• If two will hold, three will hold the devil (that was for deciding how many nails or screws to use for fastening things)

• Crooked as a dog’s hind leg (that was how he would describe a not so good saw cut

• I /you do good work, just not much of it

• If you don’t shape up, we may have to cut your pay

• I may have to put you on report

• You are the cutest pup in the park (Minnie Mouse)

Harry Blazed new trails: from Vancouver, BC, Canada; Mill Valley, CA; Seattle, WA; San Mateo, CA; Denver, CO; Nehalem, OR; Half Moon Bay, CA; Ukiah, CA, Jacksonville, OR; and now he is blazing the trail for the rest of us to heaven.

They say that you can tell what a man is committed to by looking in his check book and his calendar. That is place where he documents where and how does he spends his time, and where he invests his money. My father invested his time and money in things that made a difference for his family, his church, and his community.

I say that the difference that a man makes for other people can be measured by what people say when he is gone. Judging by just the things that people have told me in the last week, he made a huge difference in his world, right up till the end.

Daddy, I say goodbye to you with this "Prayer for Protection." If you know it, you can say it along with me.

The light of God surrounds you.

The love of God enfolds you.

The power of God protects you.

The presence of God watches over you.

Wherever you are God is.

And so it is. Amen.

"Memories of My Dad"

From his daughter Arlena Harmony, November 3, 2007

Thank you for coming to this church to celebrate my Dad's life!! This historical church was very special to my Dad and Mom. They became members of the First Presbyterian Church soon after moving to Jacksonville in 1999, and they have enjoyed worshiping here, singing the old hymns, being ushers, and visiting with other people in this beautiful building. All of us in the Botham family really appreciate your kind words, prayers, cards, flowers, the food that you've shared,

and your memories of Dad that you would like to share.

I'm going to share some memories of my Dad in his retirement years, starting in the 1980's. Dad and Mom had already lived for a few years close to my brother Les and his family near Denver, Colorado, and a few years close to my brother Marty and his family in Half Moon Bay, California where they ran the Princeton Seafood Restaurant together. Then Dad and Mom lived in Ukiah, California, near me for a few years. Ukiah is in rural Mendocino County about 6 hours south of here, with lots of orchards, vineyards, pretty countryside.

One day, Dad came up with the idea of starting a giant pumpkin weigh-off contest in Ukiah. It started when Dad met Howard Dill back east, during a long vacation across the country in their R.V. Howard Dill was world famous for growing pumpkins that, at that time, weighed almost a thousand pounds. (Today the champion pumpkins weigh around 1,500 pounds). Dad was fascinated with that. He talked the manager of the mobile home park where they lived into growing an enormous pumpkin with him. And he went to the local elementary schools in the agricultural area around Ukiah, and encouraged the students and their families to grow enormous pumpkins. He put it in the newspaper and had seminars to teach people about how to do it. He inspired the local businesses to sponsor a giant pumpkin weigh off, so they had prize money to give to the people who would enter this contest. Dad created an enthusiastic frenzy of excitement in Mendocino County for growing pumpkins!! The first official pumpkin weigh off contest was held in the Safeway Store parking lot in Ukiah. It was a great success!! Mom and I helped with all the details that Dad dreamed up. In other words, he came up with the big ideas, and we did most of the work, the organization, the follow-through, and the patching up of any mistakes that happened along the way. We raised money and canned food to give to the local charity groups. The project started growing and growing, just like an enormous pumpkin!!

The next year, Dad talked to the city council and local businesses and presented a proposal for starting a pumpkin festival for the area. They latched on to the idea, and the idea grew bigger and bigger. It turned into a 3 day event: a pumpkin weigh-off contest, a coloring contest for kids, a harvest carnival parade, an arts and crafts fair in the streets of the town, live country music, a wonderful fun time for families. A special day was set aside to honor my Dad and Mom for starting and organizing this new annual event. The mayor of the city gave my Dad and Mom a special award at a public ceremony, and they were honored as the grand marshals in the parade. Each year the event has grown. Not only has it brought hundreds of people to work together on a peaceful project, but it also has brought thousands of people in the county together to enjoy the harvest time of year. We recently heard from the organizers in October that they just completed the 15th successful Pumpkin Festival. It seems fitting that my Dad would pass away during this harvest time of year!! My Dad also became involved with teaching people to read. He volunteered as a tutor for adult students in classes at the Mendocino College, teaching English as a second language. This concept also grew to helping children to read in the S.M.A.R.T. reading program. He volunteered each week to come and read with students, one on one.

Here in Jacksonville, he also became a story teller at the Jacksonville Library's Story Time Hour. This meant preparing several stories every Wednesday at 11:00 to read to a group of about 20 pre-school children. He developed a system of awards for the children who came every week. He loved children, and they loved him!! He also loved coming to hear children sing at the many public concerts that I presented with the school children that I teach. I honor my Dad for

his main volunteer contributions that he made in the communities where he lived.

Fifty years after World War II ended, my Dad began to open up about his story of being a prisoner of war. Since he was only 19 years old when he entered the war as a Canadian soldier, he was very traumatized by the horrors that he saw all around him. He never talked about it to us kids, until 50 years later. He contacted the Ukiah Daily Journal newspaper and asked if he could tell his story in the newspaper. The editor thought that it was a good idea, and created a column so that Dad and other veterans could tell their stories too. Dad also presented his war story to different groups in Ukiah and in Jacksonville. This was an important part of his emotional healing from the psychological wounds that he had suffered. I am thankful for his contribution in World War II to protect people like us, so that we could live a better life in peace.

My Dad has always been a gentleman. He loved to give hugs to everyone, even people that would stop and say hello on the street. He liked to go on long walks with Mom, holding his cane in one hand, and my Mom's hand in the other. As long as I can remember, he called her "Sweetheart" and always said that she was beautiful. He would wake up early in the morning, and bring in a glass of orange juice to Mom in bed. Lots of times when I would stay overnight, or my Aunty Mariem or Aunty Nessie would come from Canada to visit, my Dad would make a special breakfast in the kitchen, and bring it in on a tray to us girls for breakfast in bed. He loved to treat "his girls," as he called us, with special attention.

Dad gave Mom sentimental cards on her birthday and their anniversary, and signed them "With love from Harry from Thursday Night." He was referring to their very first date. He was a romantic at heart. He wrote some wonderful poetry to Mom. We came across some of his writings when we were looking through the old photo albums a couple of weeks ago. He was surprised to read his own poetry all these years later, and said "Wow!! I didn't know that I could write so good!!" He also couldn't believe how handsome that he was in his earlier years. He enjoyed looking at the beautiful pictures of Mom and him on their honeymoon. He has always loved Mom dearly.

Dad loved to dance. He and Mom were great dance partners together!! Last month Dad called me up, when Mom wasn't home, and asked me to find out about getting them some dance lessons. It didn't seem to matter to him that he had a prosthesis. Even with only one good leg, he still wanted to dance!! I honor my Dad for his commitment to my Mom in a marriage of over 60 years.

During this last year, Dad also called me up, to help him buy a picture that he saw in a magazine. It is a beautiful picture of two people holding hands. He wanted to give this to Mom as a remembrance of how he felt about her. And he wanted it to be hung on the living room wall, so that she could see it all the time. The poem on the picture is called:"The Promise"

Across the miles I will walk with you,

in deep green forests, on shores of sand,

and when our time on earth is through,

in heaven, too, you will have my hand.

I've spent a lot of time with Dad and Mom during the last six years that they have lived in Jacksonville. Much of it involved helping him through his physical challenges. He would get grumpy at times, because of his frustrations over not being able to do the things that he used to be able to do. But I've enjoyed the sentimental side of him. He loved his family very much, cherishing the special times together.

During the last year of his life, he was able to: attend his grand daughter Crystal's speech that she gave at the University of Oregon in Eugene for her Doctorate Degree in Biology. He was so proud of her. And he always told other people how proud he was of all of his children and grand children, and how they have grown up to be successful people in life. He also attended Crystal's wedding in the bay area, and was able to visit with lots of our family members who came, including his grandson Sean, his wife Kristen, and his two great grandchildren, Kyla and Stacy. Dad and Mom and I traveled to Canada to celebrate Auntie Mariem's last birthday, and visit lots of the Canadian relatives for a week. Dad also celebrated his 60th anniversary with Mom, and his 82nd birthday. Dad got to see me graduate with my Master's Degree in Education at the Southern Oregon University. I was thankful for that. Mom and I had been taking care of Dad through all of his physical challenges during the last three years, and this summer Dad had a chance to reverse those roles, and help take care of Mom when she had her foot operation. They became very close during this time. It was an incredible last year of his life.

Besides loving his family, Dad loved animals, especially his sweet dog, Minnie. And Minnie adored him. He always told Minnie "You're the cutest pup in the park!!"

I found some inspirational words of advice that my Dad had jotted down for his own life that I would like to read:

1. Don't vegetate: Don't expect other people to do things for you.

2. Don't luxuriate: Don't sit back on your laurels.

3. Don't procrastinate: by saying I'll do it next year.

4. Dedicate your life to the dream you have in your heart: Learn

to work and study.

I could go on for hours about my Dad. I loved him dearly, and I know that a lot of you have pleasant memories to share too. So at this time, I'd like to invite you to tell something that you liked about him.