Rest in peace, Mom

My grandmother (who I called "Mom") died yesterday, and because of my training in journalism, my family asked me to write the obituary, as I did for my grandfather (who I called "Pop") when he died 9 years ago. My friends from childhood will remember how influential and how big of a part of my life Mom and Pop were to me. Although I'm sad that she's gone, I'm incredibly thankful that she was living a normal life at home right up until the moment she had the stroke, and that she did not suffer or linger. Praise God for the blessing of a long, fulfilling life and a holy death.

Mom and I at my marriage blessing last summer in Atlanta

Helen Gardner Wells (1925-2012) 

Helen Gardner Wells died Sunday, May 27, at Lexington Medical Center, following a stroke on Wednesday, May 23. She was 86.

Helen was born Aug. 27, 1925 in Columbia and graduated from Columbia High School in 1942. Her love of music began early: her father was a band director and music teacher; she was a drum majorette and played the saxophone.

She married William (“Bill”) McKendree Wells of Colorado in 1944 at Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Columbia. He also played the saxophone and they played together often in her father’s band to entertain patients at local hospitals. (Old family photos show Helen as the sole female member of her father’s 1940s-era “big band” ensemble.)

Helen worked for Southern Bell for four years before having her first child, after which she became a stay-at-home-mother, raising four boys in the 1950s and 60s in the Eau Claire area, where her family lived for 35 years before moving to Lexington. After her husband’s retirement from the life insurance business, they enjoyed spending time with their sons and daughters-in-law and two granddaughters, and traveling widely across the U.S. and Canada in their motor home, making regular trips to her husband’s native Colorado and several trips to Alaska.

Helen was known in her family for her great Southern cooking (she was known to add a pinch of sugar to nearly every dish), for her “goodie bags” of candy and cookies on road trips, for her hugs, and for her determination to see the best in everyone. (Her husband lovingly called her “Angel Fuzz” for her eternally good-natured and optimistic outlook.)

Helen’s greatest joy was her family, and she leaves a legacy of warmth and caring to her surviving family members: her four sons, William (“Bill”) McKendree Wells, III, of Columbia; Ronald Llewellyn Wells of Lexington; Jody O’Neal Wells of Alpharetta, Ga.; and Michael Gardner Wells of Lexington; two daughters-in-law, Patricia Walker Wells of Lexington and Patricia Ferrell Wells of Columbia; two granddaughters, the Reverend Tracy Jennifer Wells Miller of Franklin, Tenn., and Ashley Kristin Wells of Medford, Mass; and several nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents, her three sisters: Gerry Gardner Lott, Mary Gardner Lucius, and Betty Gardner Cull, and her husband of 59 years.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, May 31, at Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Columbia. The Reverend Paul Pingel will officiate. The family will receive friends from 7-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 30, at Barr-Price Funeral Home in Lexington.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Columbia.