Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, December 10, 2016

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Mountain View News Saturday, December 10, 2016 


Walking Sierra Madre…The Social Side 

by Deanne Davis

 “People come into your life for a reason, a season 
or a lifetime...”

 A delightful person came into my life about a 
year and a half ago, Elaine Holmgren, the mother 
of my son-in-law, Chuck, married to our oldest 
daughter, Leah. Elaine had been living in Lewiston, 
Idaho but it was getting to be too much for her, after 
all, she was 92! Chuck arranged for his mom to move 
into the beautiful new Kensington Retirement and 
Assisted Living facility here in Sierra Madre, where 
she had a lovely room overlooking an outdoor patio 
with gardens in every direction. I had met her several 
years ago, but now she was in Sierra Madre to stay.

 We met again right around Elaine’s 93rd birthday, 
which was one day after my birthday. We realized 
immediately we were going to be best friends. And we 
were. I would drop in to the Kensington for Happy 
Hour at 4:00 for a glass of wine while an excellent 
pianist played songs we actually recognized, or a 
violinist might be playing show tunes, or we’d just sit 
and chat in her quiet, peaceful room. Elaine loved to 
read and, frequently, that’s what she would be doing 
when I arrived.

 Our best times, though, were our special outings. 
We would go, every now and then to the Cheesecake 
Factory for cheesecake and champagne. If you 
have not tried cheesecake and champagne, you are 
missing out. Elaine was partial to the Salted Caramel 
cheesecake and as soon as pumpkin season started, we 
were all pumpkin all the time. Pumpkin cheesecake is 
so good it’s slightly immoral.

 We would tour the town, look at everybody’s 
gardens and trees, bemoan the lack of water and sad 
appearance of many of our trees. We would talk about 
our families, our parents, our children, incidents from 
our past where we might have done better. Elaine 
loved to talk about her mother, who, I do believe, was 
a mix of Wonder Woman and the best Presbyterian 
church member ever. Elaine had great stories of her 
youth and her mother’s exploits. She always thought 
of herself as a Californian as her dad, John Good, 
grew up in Northern California. He survived the 
1906 earthquake and earned his pharmacy degree 
from UC Berkley. Elaine’s parents met when her 
adventuresome mother visited San Francisco for the 
1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. Some time after 
their 1916 marriage, Elaine’s mother longed for home 
and the couple moved to Indiana. Elaine was born at 
the Galbreath family farm in Collamer, Indiana, in 
the same room where her mother was born 32 years 
earlier, and where her daughter, Diane, would be born 
22 years later.

 Around the beginning of the Great Depression, 
her mother would fearlessly take her four children, 
Elaine being the 3rd child, only girl and about 8 at 
the time, on long road trips to see the country while 
her dad stayed home and worked. These were true 
adventure trips as they “car camped” and dined on the 
healthy stews her mom created in the pressure cooker 
pot she had had welded to the engine block of their 
car, visiting campsites and Presbyterian or Methodist 
churches.

 Elaine married young and there were three 
children from that union, our son-in-law, Chuck, 
sister, Diane, and brother, Philip. Not the happiest 
marriage but some years later after it ended, she met 
Myron Holmgren and they spent 30 wonderful years 
together, “mostly playing,” as she put it. They loved 
to ski, bought property in Mesa, Colorado, near a 
ski resort and built a beautiful home there, moving 
on to Prescott, Arizona when the altitude became 
uncomfortable for Myron, then on to Santa Rosa, 
California, eventually ending in Lewiston, Idaho.

 Elaine thoroughly enjoyed the Halloween 
scarecrow contest here in town. We would tour the 
scarecrows and the amazing pumpkin creations by 
our neighbors and be astonished by the creativity on 
display. We looked and laughed and had a great time. 
While she was in residence at the Kensington, she had 
a steady stream of visitors: her children, their families, 
Myron’s children, Mark and Rennie, who absolutely 
adored her, and many other friends. Every time I 
appeared where she was, Elaine would greet me with 
an enthusiastic, “Sweetie!!” and was always glad to see 
me.

 Elaine was in my life for a reason, to make us 
both laugh a lot and enjoy a little champagne from 
time to time. Her season with me was not nearly long 
enough as she left us very early November 13th. She 
was a joy to me for such a short time. I would have 
liked more cheesecake dates.

 If someone is in your life for a reason, a season, or 
a lifetime, take time to go have a little champagne and 
cheesecake with them, or a cup of tea and a muffin. 
But enjoy them, my friends, enjoy them. 

 “Millions of people gave their lives fighting 
fascism and imperialism, but Pearl Harbor was the 
event that forever changed the course of human 
history.” Sam Graves

 The 75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor was last 
Wednesday, “A date which will live in infamy.”

 My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

 “A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of 
Laughter” is available from me!

Kindle readers, give yourself the gift of Star of Wonder 
– A Christmas Story

 It’s on Amazon.com on my book page!

 Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd


RISE OF THE ROCKET GIRLS IS SIERRA MADRE’S 
ONE BOOK ONE CITY CHOICE

Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled 
Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia 
Holt is the February 2017 choice for the One Book 
One City (OBOC) Program sponsored by the Sierra 
Madre Public Library.

 Rise of the Rocket Girls is the true story of the 
women who helped launch America into space. In 
the 1940s and 1950s, when the new Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory needed mathematicians, they recruited 
a group of young women who transformed rocket 
design, helped bring about the first American 
satellites, and made the exploration of the solar 
system possible.

 Meet Holt on Saturday, February 25th at 7:00 pm 
in the Sierra Madre Elementary School auditorium 
when she talks about her book. Her talk is the grand 
finale of the annual OBOC Program.

 Other sensational events include:

 Wednesday, February 1st, 7:00 pm – Dr. Steve 
Cornford, Senior Engineer in the Strategic Systems 
Office at NASA/JPL/Caltech. Cornford has been 
part of the conception, design, building and testing 
of a number of spacecraft and their components.

 Thursday, February 2nd, all afternoon – 
Children’s Walk-In Craft. Build a rocket and launch 
at the Library.

 Saturday, February 4th at 3:00 pm - Saturday 
afternoon movie: Iron Giant at the Library.

 Thursday, February 16th, 11:00 am - Third 
Thursday Book Club - Rise of the Rocket Girls. 
Drop in for a lively discussion at the Third Thursday 
Book Club for adults.

 Thursday, February 16th, 4:00 pm - STEAM 
Club. Discovery Dome Planetarium for children. 
Spend an hour exploring space at the Community 
Recreation Center. Space is limited; registrations 
begin February 1.

 Thursday, February 16th, 5:00 - Discovery Dome 
Planetarium for adults. Journey to Mars during this 
interactive program at the Community Recreation 
Center. Space is limited; registration begins 
February 1.

 Saturday, February 18th at 3:00 pm - Saturday 
afternoon movie: October Sky at the Library.

Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:00 pm - Nathalia Holt, in the 
Sierra Madre Elementary School Auditorium.

 Bestselling author Nathalia Holt, Ph.D. is a 
science writer and author of Cured: The People who 
Defeated HIV. Her work has appeared in The New 
York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, 
Slate, Popular Science, and Time Magazine.

 One Book One City is a community reading 
program that invites everyone to read and discuss 
the same book during a month of exciting free 
programs.

 

 Read, Discover, Connect @ Sierra Madre Public 
Library, 440 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre, 
CA 91024, 626-355-7186, Text 626-662-1254, www.
cityofsierramadre.com/services/library


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com