Betty Patterson King
RONAN – Betty Patterson King, 90 years young, was born in Winston Salem, North Carolina, on April 11, 1925. She died peacefully on May 7, 2015, surrounded by her family. She is preceded in death by her husband, Ware G. King, and is survived by her four children, Sarah King of Georgetown, Minnesota, Martha King of Denver, Colorado, Ann Murphy of Polson, David King of Polson; 20 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
Betty was asked by Ann to write her own contributions to an obituary:
“My mind kept playing around with the idea as I thought, first, I could do it with seven words: Betty was born; Betty lived; Betty died. Then I looked at some obituaries and recalled that they were designed to be more informative than that: ‘was preceded in death by … and is survived by … ’ and when or whether a funeral service might be and what would happen to the body. My body.
I think [Ann] really wants me to write a memoir - I am sometimes inclined to do that, and am puzzled about how much to put in and what to leave out. So I think I will go now and work on one of those juicy double-acrostic puzzles she found the other day in notebook form...
I’ve finished the puzzles and am back to the task. How do I organize this thing? How detailed do I want the work to be? What-all should I tell, and what-all is not that important; or, if important, might well be omitted anyway?”
And, that’s what Betty wrote for her assignment about her own obituary. We children have this to add:
To many, Betty’s reverie might sound irreverent and comical. But, to her children and close friends, we know that words were her playground. What did she mean when she wrote, “If important, might well be omitted anyway?” She and we knew of her many outward accomplishments, but are they all that important in the scheme of things? As we mourned, the words and our lifetime of memories revealed a glimpse of her meaning: she embodied love and compassion; she was comfortable in her own skin, allowing her to be fully present for others; she was humble and disarmed others with her humor and on and on… difficult to capture, profoundly important as a human being and her legacy to us.
So, yes, she’s teasing us, making us ponder and laugh about what might well be omitted. But, on this Mother’s Day, she has been the most important life-giving person we know.
