Mom's Life Sketch

Dianne Call’s Life Sketch

Mom had our sister, DeeAnne, write down everything she wanted for her funeral the day before she was life-flighted to LDS hospital. Fortunately, she assigned me and Shirlene the easiest talk to give…her life sketch. The good news for us was that DeeAnne had actually cornered mom on enough occasions to to get a few stories recorded.

For those of you who knew mom that was not an easy task. She did not like talking about herself because she was far more interested in what you were doing instead. Mom did want us to have a few stories though, because her biggest fear was that when her life sketch was being read, it would only say, “She worked at the cement plant…and died.”

Mom was born in Berkeley, California on December 20, 1941. She was the youngest of four children and probably the most spunky one of the bunch! Her parents were both educators and she grew up on a small farm in Providence, Utah. Her best friends were Sharon Zollinger, Saundra Neiderhauser Merritt, Karen Anderson Blotter, and Lorna Anderson Eggelston. They have remained lifetime friends.

As a child, mom’s parents tried to keep her busy by gathering and candling eggs, hauling hay, and shearing sheep. One of her most graphic stories about farming that she shared was how they would catch the chickens, chop off their heads and then watch them flip flop around without their heads until they died and then they would be Sunday dinner. We’re not sure that a love of farming ever sunk deeply into mom’s soul but it was good preparation for the fact that she would be living on a farm for the rest of her life!

Mom first met Dad when she was a junior in high school. She was a carhop at Steeds Dairy Bar and he was attending Utah State University. She said that he and his friends would come there very often and then one day one of dad’s friends told her that “Dee wanted to ask her on a date.” She was in heaven knowing that she was going out with the cutest guy she had ever met!

They did not meet again until dad had completed a mission and mom was a sophomore in college. One day her friend, Linda, told her that she thought she had seen Dee working as a janitor at the college. Mom walked down the hall of the building and stood around the corner, so that she could hide real fast if it wasn’t Dee, and said, “Are you Dee Call?” He said “yes” and she asked if he remembered her. He did! And the rest is history. Their first date was the first of February and they were engaged three weeks later! They were married in the Logan Temple on November 2, 1962. They celebrated their 49^th anniversary last year.

Mom said she was quite shocked the first day she saw dad get ready for work. Instead of putting on a shirt and tie like her father had always done, Dee put on grubby coveralls and headed out the door. They built a home in Afton and lived on $100.00 per month until it was paid for. Mom says that she felt as “poor as a church mouse and remembers rummaging through the entire house just to find 10 pennies so that she could go buy a soda with a friend.” She decided that she had to do something to earn money as well, and so with three kids at home, and one on the way, she began babysitting. She saved every penny she earned so that she could buy a few treasures. Her first purchase was a bedroom set and her second purchase was a snowmobile.

With four young children and babysitting to boot, mom felt like her family was complete and that her life was busy enough. She was extremely surprised when she found out that she was once again…expecting! At this point she said she was ready to have a “nervous breakdown!” (We were angels and can’t even imagine why she would have written this in her life history!) Needless to say, when Brian was six months old, Dad traded their newly built home for 80 acres in Grover and a FREE house. Mom’s exact words are “it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know why the house was free.” As kids we thought it was just fine, but as we now look back at pictures we are shocked at how tiny that house was.

Mom records living in that house as the most difficult time of her life. It took 3 ½ years to build a new house on the farm and mom was the architect of the entire thing. We remember her drawing the plans on the graph paper and watching the house take shape. Our family moved into that house two weeks before DeeAnne, baby number six, was born. During these years she also worked countless hours as secretary, accountant, CEO, and PR manager as she and dad built Call Ready Mix and Lumber. She was loved by those who did business with her as they formed lifetime friendships through their business associations.

Our family lived in that house for about twenty years. It was where we grew up into teenagers and then ventured off to college. We are sure that mom liked us most of the time, but there were moments when she would just take off and go for a drive in her car!

She loved her car and her telephone. We remember mom throughout our high school years as always being the mom who would drive us anywhere, bring us anything, help us on any school project we were involved in, and make brownies and treats for the whole group of teens who were working on floats, or election campaigns, or anything else that was going on.

She was also more than willing to take us toilet papering whenever we wanted to go. One night she even got caught with us and our neighbor, Ron Tolman, was quite surprised to find that these delinquent teenagers were being chauffeured by their delinquent mother!

Mom’s children seemed to leave the nest as quickly as they arrived and her three oldest children were all married in one summer. During these years she was finally able to resume her love for travel. She went on many trips with family and friends. Some of her favorite places to visit were Europe, Argentina, China, the Mediterranean, and Mexico.

In 1996, mom and dad’s house burned down. This was one of mom’s biggest challenges she faced up until this point of her life. She and dad started over and rebuilt a new house in the same spot. The main focus for the house was to create a home that would welcome family and accommodate large family gatherings. Everyone who entered that house felt her love.

Unbeknownst to mom, her greatest challenge was yet to come. In 2001 she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. We had an early Thanksgiving that year because her prognosis was grim. Ten and a half years later she had proven the doctors wrong, outlasted almost every medical procedure imaginable, remained positive through pain, and continued to inspire and influence her family and all who knew her with her courage.

She loved life. She loved living. She loved people. She was bound and determined to stick around here as long as she could. We were quite certain that she would not go to heaven until she made sure that there was an internet connection and facebook. We are sure that she has found out that the Lord has those types of communications figured out. Her life is a legacy that will continue. We have learned so much from her. She is truly our example. We will miss her. We love you mom.