Helen Shortridge, 95

"Helen, with the Lord!"

One of her last shared thoughts was, "I have lived a good life, God has been good to me!"

She lived a grateful life and smiled cleanly through this one and into the next. She was a breath of kindness in a tough world and is missed by anyone who ever met her.

She would often say, "T'aint no big thing!" ... even when it was.

She was 95 years of age and spent her last two days at Schneidmiller Hospice House, where the staff comforted our hearts and were exceptional to Mom. To our minds, the Hospice worker is a cut above the average human. An amazing group. Thank you!

Helen was born in Nebraska and met her husband, Chuck, in Tarkio, Mo. They were married for 62 years, and as beautifully sad as it was to see her leave, we also knew she was excited to see her Lord and Chuck again.

Together, they had two children, Stephen and Debra, and had five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, who all miss and love her dearly. She proudly wore all the badges of "Mom," "Grandma," "Nana" and "Gigi" with great joy.

The family moved to southern California in the 1950s, where Helen was an exceptional kindergarten through second-grade school teacher, where the students loved her, and her parents were thankful, for such a loving and caring teacher.

When they retired, she and Chuck went on many trips all over the world; even going to places like Russia and China, well before many others did ... but Italy was always their favorite.

Helen never met a trip she didn't like and considered everyone to be a friend.

As a family, we want to thank everyone for their love and support, both now and throughout the years, but especially these last few.

"God bless us, everyone," is her wish and prayer.

The family requests Remembrances made in the form of contributions to Juvenile Justice Outreach: [email protected], which helps the youth of Kootenai County.