Orlena May "Klickie" Thornton 

Mom was born on a farm in north west Ohio, almost a hundred and one years ago. She always wanted to get away from the farm and did she ever!

Her earliest memories (at least the ones she shared with us), included stealing watermelons with her brother, Bud. She was carrying one in her apron. Even when it pulled her dress down, she kept running. She was determined! She remembered the dress she was wearing, when her Dad was hit by a train and brought home to die. She was only 6 and her Mom raised them and ran the farm, until remarrying.

As you read in her obit, she graduated from high school when she was only 16. She was already teaching other kids and helping them get home after school. One day she pushed a kid out of the way of a car and had her leg broken in the process.

I remember playing on the bayou in Shalimar, when I found her and a neighbor working to save a toddler who'd fallen in to the water.

When my Dad was in Korea and she was raising two or three of us on her own, a couple of kids chased me on my bike. I rode up to the apartment, hollering for her. Even tho she was inside, yelling at them through the window, they knew she was going to let them have it, if they didn't leave me alone. That same year, she found a way to get us the first polio vaccines.

As I've thought about these stories, I realized she spent her life protecting us, while helping other kids, as a teacher and guidance counselor. Recently, she started scholarship funds at the U of Toledo, where she graduated, U of Akron, where Dad graduated, and some little school here in town where she, Dad, my brother and sister graduated.

One other funny story - when I transferred from one school to another, in Colorado, I was in love with a cute local girl, who I brought home for Christmas. Jacky and I were made to promise we'd wait another year and a half (that would be 3 years total) to get married. When we eloped a month later, she was, to say the least, VERY upset. Later, I found out she and Dad knew each other just 6 weeks, before they got married.

Mom was so strong, right up to the end. Three of us kids were with her and Tom was flying and driving in from Boston. A few minutes after she knew he was there and we were together, she just faded away to be with Dad. The four of us are so blessed to have had such an amazing woman for a mother.

We know you all feel the same way about having Mom as your friend. After Mary, Tom and Ann share some remembrances, we'll ask if you'd like to do the same.  Thanks for being with his here today, to celebrate her life.