Comments on: Remembering Betsy… 1949~2009 http://puttingafaceoncancer.com/remembering-betsy-19492009/ Mon, 29 Aug 2011 12:18:14 +0000 hourly 1 By: Amanda Kasper http://puttingafaceoncancer.com/remembering-betsy-19492009/#comment-139 Amanda Kasper Sat, 22 May 2010 11:45:41 +0000 http://www.puttingafaceoncancer.com/?p=397#comment-139 Betsy, Today we celebrate your life.... You were a special soul that touched many, many hearts. A day has not gone by without you in my heart. I want to share one of my happiest memories of you, this one from my childhood- the puppet show creator! I will never forget the creativity and vigor of your shows that evoked our interest and imagination for hours. The memory of being captivated by your stories and the endless accompanying laughter is something I will be sure to share with Jack as he grows. Thank you for your love Bets, your life and kindness will never be forgotten. We miss you everyday! Love, Amanda, Joe & Jack Betsy,

Today we celebrate your life…. You were a special soul that touched many, many hearts. A day has not gone by without you in my heart.

I want to share one of my happiest memories of you, this one from my childhood- the puppet show creator! I will never forget the creativity and vigor of your shows that evoked our interest and imagination for hours. The memory of being captivated by your stories and the endless accompanying laughter is something I will be sure to share with Jack as he grows.

Thank you for your love Bets, your life and kindness will never be forgotten. We miss you everyday!

Love,

Amanda, Joe & Jack

]]> By: Janie http://puttingafaceoncancer.com/remembering-betsy-19492009/#comment-138 Janie Thu, 13 May 2010 13:53:42 +0000 http://www.puttingafaceoncancer.com/?p=397#comment-138 Dear Drinker Family, I want to express my sincerest sorrow to all of you. You probably don't remember me that well, as I wasn't at your house much outside of Betsy's birthday parties and wasn't a close friend of hers. But I do remember so very well those wonderful parties every Columbus Day! What I recall most is playing "Kick the Can" in your backyard with all our CRS classmates and having a wonderful time, then going inside to sit around your dining room table with cake and ice cream! What a splendid, old fashioned, and innocent time! And I always remember Betsy's kindness and patience with us less athletic kids! I was the one in our class that Mrs. Stewart tried to teach to ice skate year after year on Channing Pond when the whole class would go there for sports after school. She often relied on my oh-so-patient classmates, like Betsy, to take a turn leading me around the pond on the ice. Betsy was always particularly cheerful and encouraging with me. (By the way, I never did learn to ice skate!) We all went our own ways at Beaver, but Betsy and I shared a connection through our mutual piano teacher, Lois Sollenberger. We both loved her to pieces, however Betsy remained a far more accomplished pianist than I was ever able to achieve! And I certainly always had the fondest feelings for the four of us who had ventured off to Chestnut Hill together. A sad event [her memorial gathering] but a chance to reminisce and remember simpler and kinder times. Fondly, Jane Morse Dear Drinker Family,

I want to express my sincerest sorrow to all of you. You probably don’t remember me that well, as I wasn’t at your house much outside of Betsy’s birthday parties and wasn’t a close friend of hers. But I do remember so very well those wonderful parties every Columbus Day! What I recall most is playing “Kick the Can” in your backyard with all our CRS classmates and having a wonderful time, then going inside to sit around your dining room table with cake and ice cream! What a splendid, old fashioned, and innocent time!

And I always remember Betsy’s kindness and patience with us less athletic kids! I was the one in our class that Mrs. Stewart tried to teach to ice skate year after year on Channing Pond when the whole class would go there for sports after school. She often relied on my oh-so-patient classmates, like Betsy, to take a turn leading me around the pond on the ice. Betsy was always particularly cheerful and encouraging with me. (By the way, I never did learn to ice skate!)

We all went our own ways at Beaver, but Betsy and I shared a connection through our mutual piano teacher, Lois Sollenberger. We both loved her to pieces, however Betsy remained a far more accomplished pianist than I was ever able to achieve! And I certainly always had the fondest feelings for the four of us who had ventured off to Chestnut Hill together.

A sad event [her memorial gathering] but a chance to reminisce and remember simpler and kinder times.

Fondly, Jane Morse

]]> By: Eli http://puttingafaceoncancer.com/remembering-betsy-19492009/#comment-137 Eli Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:37:51 +0000 http://www.puttingafaceoncancer.com/?p=397#comment-137 Hi - I didn't know Betsy, but found her story on a cancer survivor website and just read all these lovely stories (and great photos) from family and friends. It sounds like she had a wonderful life filled with great experiences, friends, animals and family members. i can only hope to be remembered so fondly. Hi – I didn’t know Betsy, but found her story on a cancer survivor website and just read all these lovely stories (and great photos) from family and friends. It sounds like she had a wonderful life filled with great experiences, friends, animals and family members. i can only hope to be remembered so fondly.

]]> By: Betsy Shearer http://puttingafaceoncancer.com/remembering-betsy-19492009/#comment-136 Betsy Shearer Mon, 05 Apr 2010 04:16:00 +0000 http://www.puttingafaceoncancer.com/?p=397#comment-136 Hello, My name is also Betsy. I knew Betsy many years ago when she worked at the former Store 24 in Coolidge Corner. We'd walk past each other every day and we'd each say "Hi Betsy" with a great big smile. Sometimes we'd stop and chat. I miss seeing her. I'll always remember her face lighting up with that wonderful smile. Thanks for sharing the website!! Betsy S. Hello,

My name is also Betsy. I knew Betsy many years ago when she worked at the former Store 24 in Coolidge Corner. We’d walk past each other every day and we’d each say “Hi Betsy” with a great big smile. Sometimes we’d stop and chat. I miss seeing her. I’ll always remember her face lighting up with that wonderful smile.
Thanks for sharing the website!!
Betsy S.

]]> By: Susan Beale Edson http://puttingafaceoncancer.com/remembering-betsy-19492009/#comment-135 Susan Beale Edson Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:27:52 +0000 http://www.puttingafaceoncancer.com/?p=397#comment-135 Dear Drinker Family, Betsy was my classmate at Beaver for five years. She exemplified all that was good about being part our world in a girl's high school. I can see Betsy now, in her kilt and lacrosse stick, so graceful, fast, talented. And in the "uniform" of the day; white blouse (tucked in) with the Peter Pan collar, "A line" skirt, scuffed loafers. Betsy was one of the brightest members of our class of 1967. She was a leader - in school government, '67 class, in athletics, art, any subject! Betsy was not one who needed the limelight. She was a quiet leader, always patient, calm, and level-headed. One memory is at the end of senior year, Betsy and I (and Missy Silverman?) decided to ride our bikes to school (from Dover and Westwood) with a mandatory stop at House of Pancakes on the VFW Parkway! How adventurous we thought we were!! We went our separate ways after Beaver. I thought of Betsy many times and wished she had come to our reunions. I am so glad to learn that she had many friends, stayed close to her family, and retained her warmth and grace. With warmest affections, Susan Beale Edson Dear Drinker Family,
Betsy was my classmate at Beaver for five years. She exemplified all that was good about being part our world in a girl’s high school.
I can see Betsy now, in her kilt and lacrosse stick, so graceful, fast, talented. And in the “uniform” of the day; white blouse (tucked in) with the Peter Pan collar, “A line” skirt, scuffed loafers.
Betsy was one of the brightest members of our class of 1967. She was a leader – in school government, ’67 class, in athletics, art, any subject! Betsy was not one who needed the limelight. She was a quiet leader, always patient, calm, and level-headed.
One memory is at the end of senior year, Betsy and I (and Missy Silverman?) decided to ride our bikes to school (from Dover and Westwood) with a mandatory stop at House of Pancakes on the VFW Parkway! How adventurous we thought we were!!
We went our separate ways after Beaver. I thought of Betsy many times and wished she had come to our reunions.
I am so glad to learn that she had many friends, stayed close to her family, and retained her warmth and grace.
With warmest affections,
Susan Beale Edson

]]> By: Sandy Williams Weiss http://puttingafaceoncancer.com/remembering-betsy-19492009/#comment-134 Sandy Williams Weiss Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:22:00 +0000 http://www.puttingafaceoncancer.com/?p=397#comment-134 Imaginative, creative, compassionate, athletic, and humorous are just a few of the adjectives I recall when I think of Betsy in our shared childhood - both at Charles River and Beaver. We explored woods, made forts and obstacle courses, skied all the best mountains, sailed challenging waters, played every sport we could, and shared confidences late into the night on sleep overs. I was always jealous of Betsy's family who gave their cars funny names, had a huge drawer of over 20 packages of cookies all open for the taking, and often challenged us with ridiculous tasks such as rolling in the snow with little or nothing on, when we got rowdy on house bound, cold, winter nights. Who could ask for more from a dear friend, as many of these posts have illustrated? I will never forget those wonderful years of pure innocence. Thank you Betsy. With love, Sandy Imaginative, creative, compassionate, athletic, and humorous are just a few of the adjectives I recall when I think of Betsy in our shared childhood – both at Charles River and Beaver. We explored woods, made forts and obstacle courses, skied all the best mountains, sailed challenging waters, played every sport we could, and shared confidences late into the night on sleep overs.

I was always jealous of Betsy’s family who gave their cars funny names, had a huge drawer of over 20 packages of cookies all open for the taking, and often challenged us with ridiculous tasks such as rolling in the snow with little or nothing on, when we got rowdy on house bound, cold, winter nights.

Who could ask for more from a dear friend, as many of these posts have illustrated? I will never forget those wonderful years of pure innocence.

Thank you Betsy.

With love, Sandy

]]> By: Lisa Perry-Wood http://puttingafaceoncancer.com/remembering-betsy-19492009/#comment-133 Lisa Perry-Wood Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:57:56 +0000 http://www.puttingafaceoncancer.com/?p=397#comment-133 Oh dear, Betsy. I have been reading all of the posts and crying and laughing and then crying again. Dear, dear Betsy - how I wish I had known you were ill and could have visited you as your sweet Mom visited my brother Andy as he lay sick with cancer back in the 70's. What a gift that was to our family. I have never forgotten. And I certainly remember our Charles River days - I'm the one right in the front of the CRS picture that Louly sent. Of course I thought I was your "best friend" too! That was the gift you had - to make each one of us feel loved and fully friended every moment we spent with you. I remember when I started at CRS in 3rd grade, how scared and unhappy I was and then you came in 4th grade and the sun just came out for me. Whether riding bikes up and down Strawberry Hill and Wilsondale streets, playing endless games of hopscotch, trick or treating till we dropped (even going to the "spooky houses" where we weren't supposed to go!), or making up our own magical games, which were always the best, you were always the MOST fun to play with. Like Louly and Janet I lost touch with you when we went to different schools, but I remember you at Andy's funeral - how we held onto each other and cried for a lost innocence that we could never get back - the days when everything was possible and safe and good. I'm crying for those days right now. I miss you, Bets. I hope you get to come back as a beautiful and playful cat - and I will be looking for you. Love, Lisa Oh dear, Betsy. I have been reading all of the posts and crying and laughing and then crying again. Dear, dear Betsy – how I wish I had known you were ill and could have visited you as your sweet Mom visited my brother Andy as he lay sick with cancer back in the 70′s. What a gift that was to our family. I have never forgotten. And I certainly remember our Charles River days – I’m the one right in the front of the CRS picture that Louly sent. Of course I thought I was your “best friend” too! That was the gift you had – to make each one of us feel loved and fully friended every moment we spent with you. I remember when I started at CRS in 3rd grade, how scared and unhappy I was and then you came in 4th grade and the sun just came out for me. Whether riding bikes up and down Strawberry Hill and Wilsondale streets, playing endless games of hopscotch, trick or treating till we dropped (even going to the “spooky houses” where we weren’t supposed to go!), or making up our own magical games, which were always the best, you were always the MOST fun to play with. Like Louly and Janet I lost touch with you when we went to different schools, but I remember you at Andy’s funeral – how we held onto each other and cried for a lost innocence that we could never get back – the days when everything was possible and safe and good. I’m crying for those days right now. I miss you, Bets. I hope you get to come back as a beautiful and playful cat – and I will be looking for you.
Love, Lisa

]]> By: Janet Wyman Coleman http://puttingafaceoncancer.com/remembering-betsy-19492009/#comment-132 Janet Wyman Coleman Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:26:00 +0000 http://www.puttingafaceoncancer.com/?p=397#comment-132 I knew Betsy, because our families were close friends (Uncle Pemmy was my brother’s godfather and my mother is Susan’s godmother), and because we were classmates at the Charles River School in the fifth and sixth grades. Everyone loved Betsy! She was just so much fun...so eager to go on bike rides and “explore” which is what you did with your afternoons in those days. I remember whizzing down Strawberry Hill and Wilsondale, and then from my house, pedaling up and down Main Street. Often we leaned back and held our arms in the air like goal posts. We teetered along fences losing our balance and jumping to the ground. We stepped from steady stone to loose stone along the old walls. We leapt like ponies over the jumps I’d constructed around our barn, climbed trees above the house and crouched under the lower branches of pines. If you were a little girl in those days, Betsy was the perfect friend. I remember her gentleness and warmth and what a “cool”, kind and loyal pal she was to all of us at CRS. We lost touch when we graduated and went on to different schools, but I will never forget her smile and the many wonderful times I shared with her, and our two families shared together. I send my love to Aunt Pril and all of Betsy’s family. I am so sorry. Janet Wyman Coleman I knew Betsy, because our families were close friends (Uncle Pemmy was my brother’s godfather and my mother is Susan’s godmother), and because we were classmates at the Charles River School in the fifth and sixth grades. Everyone loved Betsy! She was just so much fun…so eager to go on bike rides and “explore” which is what you did with your afternoons in those days. I remember whizzing down Strawberry Hill and Wilsondale, and then from my house, pedaling up and down Main Street. Often we leaned back and held our arms in the air like goal posts. We teetered along fences losing our balance and jumping to the ground. We stepped from steady stone to loose stone along the old walls. We leapt like ponies over the jumps I’d constructed around our barn, climbed trees above the house and crouched under the lower branches of pines. If you were a little girl in those days, Betsy was the perfect friend. I remember her gentleness and warmth and what a “cool”, kind and loyal pal she was to all of us at CRS. We lost touch when we graduated and went on to different schools, but I will never forget her smile and the many wonderful times I shared with her, and our two families shared together. I send my love to Aunt Pril and all of Betsy’s family. I am so sorry.
Janet Wyman Coleman

]]> By: louly chase http://puttingafaceoncancer.com/remembering-betsy-19492009/#comment-131 louly chase Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:34:45 +0000 http://www.puttingafaceoncancer.com/?p=397#comment-131 <img src="http://pafoc.gravitydesigns.com/files/CRS61_web_.jpg" alt="" /> Betsy you were my best friend at Charles River School. You saved my life back then when my home life was so unhappy. You were so much fun to be with and always invited me over to play... even though I couldn't reciprocate. you always made me happy , made me smile.. I loved jumping on the the trampoline together and the 'family' feeling I had at your house that was missing in mine. I remember tramping through the snowy woods in Dover with a sled, going on an arctic exploration. I remember pricking our fingers and becoming 'blood sisters'. You went to Beaver and I went to Milton. We lost touch but I never forgot you. I also thought it was very cool that your birthday was Columbus Day! The things little kids remember... My best friend, I miss you. louly
Betsy you were my best friend at Charles River School. You saved my life back then when my home life was so unhappy. You were so much fun to be with and always invited me over to play… even though I couldn’t reciprocate. you always made me happy , made me smile.. I loved jumping on the the trampoline together and the ‘family’ feeling I had at your house that was missing in mine. I remember tramping through the snowy woods in Dover with a sled, going on an arctic exploration. I remember pricking our fingers and becoming ‘blood sisters’. You went to Beaver and I went to Milton. We lost touch but I never forgot you. I also thought it was very cool that your birthday was Columbus Day! The things little kids remember… My best friend, I miss you. louly

]]> By: Yanick Josey http://puttingafaceoncancer.com/remembering-betsy-19492009/#comment-130 Yanick Josey Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:33:45 +0000 http://www.puttingafaceoncancer.com/?p=397#comment-130 <img src="http://pafoc.gravitydesigns.com/files/YanickJaniya_web_.jpg" alt="" /> Betsy: You are the best. I love you so much. You are so strong, always there when I needed a shoulder to cry on. Never judged me no matter what decision i made. You loved me for me! And I love you for you too. Betsy you were that extra push that everybody needs in life. You changed my life. You opened me up more than you know. You motivated me so much to strive for what i want and continue to follow my dream and be a nurse. I always remember meeting you at Hynes convention center to get some lunch at the Pru. Often we had lunch out side during the nice weather and talked about how our lives are how we were going to change it for the better. For my birthday you and I went to the Prudential to pick out a piece of jewelery. You got me a silver ring with a pink stone in it and called it my promise ring, promise to finish school and be successful in life and let nothing stand in the way of it. I'm glad you are a part of Janiya and my life! Love Yanick
Betsy:

You are the best. I love you so much. You are so strong, always there when I needed a shoulder to cry on. Never judged me no matter what decision i made. You loved me for me! And I love you for you too. Betsy you were that extra push that everybody needs in life. You changed my life. You opened me up more than you know. You motivated me so much to strive for what i want and continue to follow my dream and be a nurse.
I always remember meeting you at Hynes convention center to get some lunch at the Pru. Often we had lunch out side during the nice weather and talked about how our lives are how we were going to change it for the better.
For my birthday you and I went to the Prudential to pick out a piece of jewelery. You got me a silver ring with a pink stone in it and called it my promise ring, promise to finish school and be successful in life and let nothing stand in the way of it. I’m glad you are a part of Janiya and my life!

Love
Yanick

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