Mom 7/2/1939 -7/3/2023

Mom passed in the early hours of July 3d. Nancy Victoria Cole-Schultz was known as Vicky to her friends and mom by us kids. Where to start with a eulogy for one's mother. Mom was a lover of books, playing cards, raising animals, the Olympics on TV, road trips and the natural beauty of the western USA. What I remember most were her stories. On long drives to Bend or California, mom often told stories from her childhood in Grand Junction, Colorado and her teen years in La Jolla, California, all about her family, her aunt Virginia, the camping trips she and dad used to take with my brothers when they were young and many more. She was the kid who didn't want to grow up, hiking the cliffs and beaches of southern California and reading books while her peers were listening to Elvis, whom she despised, and having teenage fun at social events, which she wanted no part of. She loved the original Disney movies, classical music, adventure books and roller skating. One of the coolest facts about mom was that she was in the early wave of roller derby in the 50s and she was a great skater all through her life. When I was 10 we used to go roller skating on off-nights at the Bend roller rink, skating to Devo, Blondie, the Rolling Stones and Pat Benatar and after we would go for a slice of pie at a truck stop near our trailer park. In the 50s, mom was part of the group of youths that held court at my father, Ed Cole's garage, outside of Escondido. Some evenings she would gather with characters like Big Charlie and Bob Lambert and listen to my dad tell war stories about WWII, talk about books, life during the depression and who-knows-what-else, but it sounded like a Steinbeckian scene with my dad cast as Doc from Cannery Row. As the story goes, she brought dad over to her parents house for dinner and they all had a wonderful time. After he had left, mom's parents stated, "Nancy, that was the most interesting man we've ever met." and mom said "THAT is the man I intend to marry." Her parents didn't take it well and sent her off to Florida for a month. Needless to say, that tactic backfired and mom did marry dad upon returning. Yes there was an age difference but I can't help but think that it was a mutual affair, such is the power of the story. Ed Cole and Nancy Denslow married in 1959 and started having kids soon after, my brothers Darrow, Monty and Mike born in quick succession followed by my sister Neva in 1965 and myself in 1970. In the early years of their marriage they lived in La Jolla in a house inherited from Mom's family; later we moved to Ramona which was my first home before we all moved to north to Smith River in 1975, where my dad died soon after. I remember her crying a lot that year. With 5 kids in tow, we now moved to Gasquet where we re-settled for a few years before uprooting again and going to Bend, where we could be near our friends the Jacksons and also Mt Bachelor, as by this time the whole family was into skiing. We met the McKinnon family around this time, as Mike had returned to Gasquet and was dating Leona McKinnon. Mom became fast friends with Moni and Richard McKinnon and invited the whole clan, 11 in total, to come up and stay over at our place for skiing during Christmas 1979. We became best friend families all through the 80s and we spent a ton of time at their wonderful, chaotic house on Gainard street in Crescent City. As my older siblings graduated and moved out, it was mom and me for a few years, roller skating and seeing movies and having great conversations while she also embarked on dating, often leaving me over at the Jacksons or McKinnons. Eventually she married Gordon "Shorty" Schultz in 1984, another fine roller skater, and we were back in Gasquet and my younger brother Walter was born around this time. What happened after that is more of a blur, since I was on my own path and not thinking too much about mom but she always had her dogs that she loved, most of all a black lab called Blackstar that she put a lot of effort into training. Living in Philomath, Sweet Home, Crescent City and eventually Lebanon, mom spent her final 2 decades with Ron Schrick, the man who took care of her til the end. I don't think mom thought about things like legacy, but what I took away from her was the importance of visiting people, always taking around her elderly friends for errands and staying for hours for tea and conversation. She had so many friends like this - "Bobbie", "Bruce and Dorothy", "Gus and Alice", and several others. I would be bored, playing with my R2D2 figure while they chatted away about events and people long past and sometimes playing cards but it was a nice vibe. Many times she would dispatch me out of the van to go hold the door open for some old lady or person in a wheelchair. Kindness mattered to mom and I think that was her greatest gift to the world - she was kind and she really appreciated people. Rest in peace, mom, it's been a long road and you will be missed.