ZINGG, Harriet Myra

The Verde Independent, Cottonwood, AZ Saturday, November 26, 2011 Harriet Myra Zingg 1919 - 2011 It is impossible to reduce a life as big as our mom’s into a paragraph for a newspaper. This has always been a mystery to me. How difficult to capture a person’s meaningful purpose in a few brief lines of text. Her fortitude and strengths were brought on at birth. Dec 23, 1919 in Tres Piedras, NM there was so much snow on the ground the doctor had to ride his horse to the house to help bring her into this world. The 3rd of 8 children born to parents who chose farming as their lifestyle, mom had plenty of responsibilities and a work ethic that is the perfect example. As you can imagine in a house full of siblings she had a sense of humor as well. Living through the great depression and surviving the effects WWI and diseases we never hear of any more this was an era that brought people together. They were survivors. Completing high school and then earning a teaching certificate she taught at a one room school house in Southern Colorado. Loving adventure, she left the farm in 1940 and headed west with a friend to discover life in Los Angeles. She met true love in a tall handsome man from Minnesota and they were married in August 1941. They started a family in 1942. When WWII took dad over seas mom returned to the farm with their 2 year old daughter where she stayed for 5 years. Back home in Los Angeles they began to rebuild their life together. In 1950 a son was born and she was told she couldn’t have any more children. Much to her surprise she was pregnant again in 1959! Always wanting to raise two children close in age another baby came along in 1961. She was an active member and volunteer at St. Pius X Church and 1st to 8th grade school where the youngest two attended. Mom was always quick to volunteer with a generous heart full of love and gratitude. In the early 1970’s she received a keychain from the United Blood Services in recognition of donating 5 gallons! She continued to schedule blood donations like you would hair cuts until the mid 1990’s. Mom volunteered at the first hospice in the 70’s here in the Verde Valley. She was an active member of the Immaculate Conception Church in Cottonwood from 1975 and had a Rosary prayer group that met every Monday for over 20 years. She was preceded in death by her husband in 1977, still with two teenagers to raise. Her strong faith in God brought her through, there is no other possible explanation for her sanity! She maintained her own home where she enjoyed gardening. In the late 1980’s we convinced her to have the neighbor kid split the kindling for her wood stove and mow the lawns for her. She still insisted on edging the lawn herself. She was known to shovel out the irrigation ditches and rake and haul leaves out to the pasture. Her porches were always swept clean and her furniture dusted. Laundry was on Monday and ironing on Tuesday! Mom was never afraid of work and her reward was the satisfaction of a job well done. Her love of adventure took her on many camping and fishing trips with her family and friends and of course every year back to the family farm. Later she enjoyed an Alaskan cruise and a two week adventure to the Holy Land. Mom loved to read and learn new things and enjoyed spending time with her neighbors, friends and family. Her ten grand children and four great grandchildren were her crowning glory and she loved spending time with them. God granted her good health throughout her life which allowed her to continue to volunteer whenever she could. When she lost her sure-footedness she moved in with her youngest daughter in Lake Montezuma in January 2008. It was an honor to have her in our home and share day to day joys and trials, loss and gains, meals and chores. She continued to live self sufficiently in our home doing her own laundry, on Monday of course, making her own breakfast and lunch and helping out with the household chores. Near the end of her life some dementia set in and it was like an Easter egg hunt to find utensils or dishes she had set away the day before. Her appetite for sweet baked goods increased to 3 times a day and then in between for snacks. A man at the grocery store commented on my purchase of a dozen doughnuts. When I told him they were for my 91 year old mother he suggested we watch her sugar intake as it could cause diabetes. I smiled and thanked him for his concern and thought at 91, if she wants chocolate cake and ice cream for breakfast with cookies for desert, she can have it! Her love of God brought her through life. She prayed without ceasing. Her daily conversations with the LORD turned to requests to take her home over a year ago. When she fell and broke her femur bone in mid August the doctors said she may not make it through the surgery due to a blood condition much like leukemia. When she left the hospital 10 days later they said she would only live a few days maybe a couple of weeks at the most. They no longer make the cloth she was cut from. Three months later it was finally time for her to go home to be in heaven with her loving Father and all her worldly family that left here before her. She must be so happy now once again sure-footed, volunteering and beginning eternal life with all her loved ones. Her life here was certainly one to aspire to. Myra is survived by her children, Kathy (John) Taggart, Mira Loma, CA, Don (Martie) Zingg, Costa Mesa, CA, Craig (Janette) Zingg, Tucson, AZ, Deb (Chuck) Riley, Lake Montezuma, AZ, here 10 grand children and 4 great grand children. Bueler Camp Verde Funeral Home assisted the family with arrangements. Information provided by survivors.