Doris West Slow and Determined III

Doris had some mean doctors. They kept insisting she was too old to bicycle across Michigan. But Doris was a stubborn lady. Finally, at age 87, she gave in and stopped coming on PALM. Doris was tricky too. She had friends drive her to down on her birthday and we celebrated with her. By age 90 the mean doctors kept her from pedaling at all. But Doris had a new group of friends so she was the lead harmonica player in a harmonica choir. They laughed a lot and played the harmonicas some (which was good because they were funnier than they were musical).

Another thing became evident this decade: how much all the branches of the West family meant to her. I remember the picture on her wall of Pat and Isaac on a cross-country motorcycle trip. And pictures of the far-flung Wests. If you come to the memorial service for Doris you will be a lot of bicyclists wearing bright shirts, one of them will be a shirt that has the first 25 PALM patches on it. In this last decade Doris would have replaced all of the bicycling patches with pictures of the children, grand- and great grandchildren.

My wife and I had dinner last night with good friends. The guy is a 4th grade teacher here. Each year he would take his students to Brecon Village to hang with the golden agers. Doris was the favorite oldster. The student who was most affected by Doris was named Gerry. The circle of life....

On March 20 at 3 pm the people who were lucky enough to know Doris are gathering to laugh and celebrate an amazing woman. Come join us: http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/annarbor/obituary.aspx?n=doris-h-west-barnard&pid=140493424

Pictured are the Brecon Village Harmonicats, photo by Ann Hunt at Doris's 90th birthday.