Francis Evelyn Abbott Zollinger
November 12, 1924 - November 10, 2011
My Grandma Zollinger passed away last week, two days before her 87th birthday. Although she will be greatly missed, I am happy that my Gramma was released from the limitations of the disease that claimed her body in her final years--free to hum her favorite '40s tunes like the bubbly, cheerful, sweet Grandmother that I remember fondly from my childhood.
I couldn't have captured the essence of my Gramma any better than the words shared by my sister:
She was a great storyteller and I loved hearing stories about when she was younger, and the ones she made up. I loved trying on all of her little avon mini-lipsticks and costume jewelry. She was a horrible cook, but I loved making things with her because she wasn't afraid to experiment or let us 'help.' My favorite things to make were 'honey balls' and 'cheese straws' and my least favorite things to eat included anything out of 'american cheese' and anyone of her experimental salads, including and most especially one that I believe was named 'Ronald Reagan salad' and paired vegetables with mayo. yuck. She never ever pronounced 'Kmart' correctly, instead pronouncing it 'Kmark.' This irritated me endlessly and I corrected her constantly. She wore polyester pants with seams down the front and silky blouses. This was her uniform for as long as I knew her and I never knew her to deviate from it. She had partial dentures and would occasionally take them out in her bedtime routine to my shrieking amusement. She had endless patience for games of go-fish as well as for all of the half-broken weird off-brand games she would pick up from garage sales. She really disliked shopping, but would take me shopping each time I visited. She wasn't much of a t.v. watcher (or maybe she just didn't have the time whenever we were visiting) with the weekly exception of the Lawrence Welk show, which I remember her and grandpa watching religiously.
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