Mamie Pearl Bender

Mamie Pearl Graham was born on April 13, 1927 in Midland County, Michigan to Jennie and Carl Graham. She was the fifth of ten children.

She grew up in a poor family sometimes barely having enough to eat. She wore hand-me-down clothes and put pieces of cardboard in her shoes to make them last longer. Her father did odd jobs and handyman work. Her mother taught school when she could.

When Mamie was nine, her family moved to North Carolina where they lived for a while before moving back to Michigan.

Mamie learned to read at a young age and would read anything she could get her hands on. Her favorite book was Clever Queen.

She graduated from Cedar Lake Academy in 1946 and went on to Andrews University, putting herself through college by working at the shirt press on campus. She always wanted to be a missionary nurse and enrolled in the nursing program, but ended up having to drop out due to finances.

For a short time, she lived with her sister Clara helping them on the farm until she was asked to teach grades 1-6 at a little one-room schoolhouse in Clarksfield, Ohio.

It was there that she met August Samuel Bender, also known as Gus, in 1949 at the little Clarksfield church. They dated for 8 months before getting married on June 4, 1950.

Their first house was a tiny one that someone delivered on the back of a truck. It was placed on the land that Gus was farming for his sister Rose and her husband.

Their oldest son Garry was born in 1951, followed by Larry three years later, and then Bonnie three years after that.

In the summer of 1960, being tired of the long cold winters, they sold everything but what would fit into the back of their station wagon and headed west to California where some of Mamie’s family lived. They ended up in Escondido, California and lived with Mamie’s brother Ivan and his family until Gus could find work and a house.

Gus found a job right away and worked in construction while Mamie stayed home with the three children. It was shortly after they arrived in California that Mamie was introduced to knitting and crocheting. She was soon making sweaters and sewing clothes for herself and the kids. Her sister always tried to help her with knitting but because she lived 3 hours away, Mamie mostly self-taught herself, by trial and error.

It seemed that any kind of craft or handwork came naturally to her, and she made many beautiful things for the house and her family. She would even make the heavy pleated drapes for the living room.

She loved being “Mom” to all of her children’s friends that they brought home with them from boarding academy and college. Even until the end she was “Mom” to younger church members.
Mamie and Gus lived in Escondido/Valley Center area until 1991, when they then moved to Caldwell, Idaho. They loved being part of a “farming community” again. After losing Gus in 1996, she became involved in Community Services and also helped at CAES listening to children read. She always wanted to keep busy and feel like she was contributing.

Up until the very end, she was making quilts and knitting/crocheting afghans for Project Linus.
This past summer, her son Larry and son-in-law Danny built a mother-in-law quarters onto Bonnie and Danny’s house for her. Everyone felt it was time for Mom to not live alone anymore. On the morning of Sunday, October 7, moving day, she had a massive heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. After having a stent put in, she suffered yet another heart attack a few hours later and survived that one as well.

She was left weakened and exhausted, but on Wednesday, October 10 she was able to come home to her new little home. Fall was her favorite time of the year, and she loved sitting in her chair by the window and watching the leaves fall.

She got to enjoy her new little home for only 3 days before passing quickly on Sabbath afternoon October 13, 2018.

We love and miss you mom, grandma, great-grandma and friend. We will see you again on resurrection morning.

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