I first met her at the Westwood Methodist Church at a meeting of the Single Young Adults group, sometime around 1959. The meetings always concluded with a dance. I was a terrible dancer, but she didn’t seem to mind. When the music was too fast for me to dance to she would sit politely on the sideline with me and we talked. Many years later she told me that she was attracted to me because I reminded her of her brother-in-law of whom she was particularly fond.
We got engaged around Valentine’s Day in 1961 and were married on July 16.
Our first home was an apartment in West L.A. After it was burglarized twice in 6 months we started to look for a house to buy. After failing to find a place that suited us and our budget in West L.A. area we found a place in Tarzana that suited us and fitted into our budget. It was in what had been a plum orchard and had seven bearing trees. Every year we had so many plum fruit that we invited all our friends to bring their ladders to a “Plum-ing Party”. Some of those friends are here today.
For two and a half years she commuted to Westchester High School near Los Angeles Airport. The San Diego freeway was still under construction, so it was a long haul. Thank goodness for a car pool.
During our “B.C” (that’s “before children”) years she worked as a private Spanish language tutor.
Our daughter Helen arrived in September of 1967. Our son Howard was born in July of 1969. From there on our lives revolved around them.
With two children and all their playthings added to the family our little house in Tarzana was pretty crowded, so Harriett started looking for a bigger home. She found one about a mile away in Woodland Hills which had a big back yard and even had a barn for Helen’s horse in later years.
Harriett had gone to U.S.C on a Scholarship and was an avid Trojan, so when Howard was selecting a college it was not surprising that he chose his mother’s alma mater. He got scholarships too, but in order to cover the nontrivial expenses not covered by the scholarships, Harriett went back to work for a large commercial real estate broker in Woodland Hills, where she worked until we moved to Ojai.
In her retirement years in Ojai she was active as a volunteer instructor in the AARP Safe Driver classes, and also at this church, where she was Lay Leader up until her death.
Now eulogies are supposed to be in praise of the deceased person. I know no words that can adequately praise her for all she has done, and all that she has been during our 53 years together.