Helen Irene Doering
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.