Lorraine Elizabeth McKee was born on January 24, 1930, in Kline, Montana. Her parents, Charles and Anna Golob, and older sister Irene welcomed her to the family. In later years, Charles Jr (Junior), Richard (Sonny), and Glen also joined the family. For most of Lorraine's childhood, her family lived in Post Falls, Idaho. You can see the light green house even today to the right of the westbound lanes of I-90 travelling toward the state line with Washington. 

Lorraine was married to James Oliver Abel in June of 1950. The double wedding ceremony included sister Irene to Norman Herman. Jim and Lorraine settled in Spokane, WA, living for a brief time in Spangle, WA. 

Her first child, Daniel James (Dan), was born on March 10, 1952. Kathleen Lorraine (Kathy) followed on September 3, 1954. Then, a few years later, on September 21, 1962, Patricia Anna (Patsy, then later Patty) joined the family. Jim passed away from a brain tumor in 1967. 

Lorraine did secretarial work for the Spokesman Review newspaper, and then stayed home to raise children. Even then, she did seamstress work on the side. Her most memorable projects were creating the uniforms for an all-black girls drill team and sewing the Santa suits for the Salvation Army bellringers at Christmastime. She sewed beautiful dresses and outfits, especially for her girls, until they (mostly Patty) got old enough to start wanting 'real' dresses. 

A major stroke was a huge set-back for Lorraine in 1986. But, true to her hardworking farmgirl roots, she fought through the rehabilitation process and defied all the odds. The doctors had predicted she would be in basically a vegetative state the rest of her life. Though the stroke centered in her speech center and robbed her of speech, she managed to learn to walk and independently care for herself again. She struggled through speech therapy and was able to learn a couple of words, 'Oh' and 'Boy'. She would in later years use these words when she was upset with someone, and if you heard "Boy, oh, boy!" or "Boy, boy, boy", you knew you were really in trouble! 

After moving to western Washington to be closer to all her children, she lived on her own for many years, but moved on to assisted living as things got more difficult for her. Her latest residence was at Renton Villa in Renton, WA. Everywhere she lived, she was loved and respected for her determination to not depend on others. Everyone knew Lorraine and never had a bad word to say about her. 

Though Lorraine had struggled through pneumonia and other major illnesses before, she contracted pneumonia in early December of 2009 and had to be hospitalized. She was also hindered because of a fall she took prior to Thanksgiving. She was finally diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder from that injury. While in the hospital, she also struggled through 2 tough infections (one of them being MRSA), digestive problems that necessitated emergency exploratory surgery, kidney trouble, heart trouble, and extreme edema. The pneumonia worsened and a ventilator was needed to help her breathe. Later, she had a tracheotomy and a ventilator was hooked up there so she could be less sedated. 

Lorraine's continued to decline in health througout January. She had been released from ICU to Regional Hospital, a respiratory specialty hospital, to be weaned from the ventilator. After putting up a valiant struggle, as was her custom, but not improving, she chose to have the ventilator removed. On February 5, 2010, with her family present singing her favorite hymns, she passed peacefully into the arms of Jesus, her Savior, within minutes of breathing her last few breaths on her own. 

We will miss you so much, Mom, but we know you are no longer in pain, no longer bedridden, no longer without speech. You are praising God with a beautiful, perfect voice. We are so happy for you and look forward to being with you again, praising Him with you. Thank you for all you've given us in your life here on this earth. May you continue to be a sweet fragrance in your new home! We love you!

I'll miss her, but she really is so much better off now.  Thanks to everyone who has been praying for my family, especially for my mom. She's handling this so much better than I expected. This weekend will probably be another tough one since we'll be in Spokane for her  burial. Please continue to pray for us. Pray that we will be an example to the rest of our family through this tough time and that the joy of Jesus will shine through us.

Isn't she gorgeous?  I'm hoping that no-grey gene is going to be passed on to me...

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