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Helen Irene Doering
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August 30, 1941 ~ March 21, 2014 |
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March 18, 2014 |
 Helen
Irene Doering, 72, a longtime North Idaho
resident who loved all children, including the
troubled, and cooking for the masses, died
unexpectedly March 14 while on a road trip to
visit friends in Pasco. A celebration of Helen’s
life will be held at 4 p.m. Friday, March 21, at
Sandpoint Christian Center, N1925 Boyer, with a
potluck to follow.
Please bring one of Helen’s favorite dishes and
memories to share with the family.
Helen was born August 30, 1941, in Redlands,
California, the daughter of Asa and Lillie Judy.
She attended school in Redlands, where this
tall, sparkly-eyed beauty was named runner up in
the Miss Redlands Pageant.
She spent the first chapter of her adult life
feeding people in various capacities. After
moving to Naples in 1989, Helen started the
second chapter of her life as a bus driver,
safely hauling children over thousands of miles
of bumpy and muddy North Idaho roads.
The final chapter of Helen’s life combined her
loves of cooking, driving and caring for
children as she spent endless hours volunteering
for Kinderhaven and for any cause that needed
food or a little grandma love with her roommate
and best friend in all adventures, Luada
Swisher.
Helen and Lu, fondly known and loved as "The
Grandmas," burned up the highway on their weekly
trips to Spokane gathering food and supplies.
The Grandmas were voted together as
Kinderhaven’s 2012 Angel of the Year during the
Festival of Trees celebration. It was rare
public recognition for the gals who quietly —
well, if you don’t count their friendly
bickering and grousing — helped out of kindness
and unconditional love for children.
Helen met and married the love of her life,
Roger L. Doering, in 1962. They lived in
southern California where she helped Roger with
the family business while raising their four
children.
After moving to North Idaho, Helen became a
foster parent in 1991 and was instrumental in
the lives of many children who remained special
in her heart.
Loving and raising children is often as
heartbreaking as it is gratifying and Helen’s
capacity to love and live fully prevailed
whether it was losing her youngest son Glenn in
an automobile accident in 1983 to having foster
children choose dark paths of jail and drugs.
No matter Helen’s troubles — whether of
the heart or with her longtime battle with
diabetes- — her desire to help others continued
to shine.
Many children and adults had the pleasure of
calling her “Grandma” and “Mom,” jobs she took
seriously, spreading her love to all she
encountered. She was the glue that kept her
family tightly bonded.
Yet Helen had a gruffer side that she mostly
shared with those who irritated or interfered
with her common-sense and domestic
sensibilities.
The woman could snarl and shoot dagger eyes,
scaring many into silence. But in reality she
was a softy, and this so-called toughness never
fooled the children or her friends.
She also had a quick tongue and a bit of a smart
mouth, often stating the obvious, especially to
those suffering with self-pity or arrogance. She
loved laughter, holding babies, telling stories,
watching ice skating (never missing a minute of
this year's Olympics) and frogs.
Helen was an amazing cook and she enjoyed
cooking for those she loved, from a small
birthday gathering to a wedding reception for
300. The kids fondly remember her potato supreme
and huckleberry cloud dessert.
Helen liked playing cards, especially pinochle,
with her retired bus shop friends and was a
talented artist at re-upholstering furniture.
Helen is survived her former husband Roger L.
Doering of Naples and four children: daughter
Tami (Jarret) Stormo of Sandpoint, son Roger
(Laurie) Doering of Naples, daughter Brenda
(Kenneth) Paddack of Sandpoint and honorary son
Jerome (Tina) Doering of Wichita, Kansas, in
addition to foster children Randy Koivu and Jon
Stewart to name a few, and former
children-in-law Duane Burnham and Kim Johnson.
Grandchildren: Thi Burnham, Tawni Hamilton,
Tori Burnham, Michael Stormo, Jennifer (Reuben)
Hoffman, Heather Doering, Miranda Paddack,
Abigail Paddack, Glenn Paddack, Kjay Paddack,
Victoria Doering, Ben Doering, Genevieve Madden
and honorary granddaughter Brekka Colby.
Great-grandchildren: Hailey Hamilton, Hannah
Hamilton and Lillie Hoffman.
Siblings: brother Mellard Judy of Boise, former
sister-in-law Jean Taylor-Smith of Colorado, and
sisters-in-heart, Luada Swisher of Sandpoint and
Gail (Randy) Curless of Sandpoint in addition to
numerous nieces and nephews.
There are a multitude of others she considered
her family; all of the foster children, the
children she drove bus for all those years,
everybody at Kinderhaven and so many more she
loved unconditionally.
Helen was preceded in death by her parents, Asa
and Lillie Judy, her namesake and beloved Aunt
Helen Fridell, brother Donald, son Glenn and
grandson-in-law Todd Hamilton. |
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