Thomas has had a very busy month.
He had his Welcoming Party, drove cross country, and spent his First Fathers Day with his Daddy.
Unfortunately he also lost 2 of his Great Grand Parents this month. We wish that he could have grown up to know his Great Grandpa Bingham and his Great Grandma Puz, but we will tell him all about them.
There have been a lot of developments this month. He holds his head up pretty much all the time now. He also likes to stand up when you hold him. He will jump up and down, and he even tries to stick a foot out as if he is trying to walk. (NOT YET!!! ERIC HASN'T BABY PROOFED THE HOUSE!!!) So I tried him out in the Johnny Jump Up and he loves it. At least until he is hungry again.
Yes he still eats all the time. I don't know how much he weighs right now, but he seems to be growing daily. I believe that he is also teething. I know he is only 3 months old, but he is constantly drooling and is always chewing on his hand or whatever else is in sight.
He has become very alert and smiles when you smile at him. He can also scoot across the floor. If I set him in the middle of his play mat he will scoot off the mat or turn around in a circle.
Things have been so busy lately that I did not get to make Eric's first Father's Day as special as I would have liked to. But fortunately a while back I had kind of thought ahead. When Susan and Lena had come over to work in the garden I thought it would be a neat idea to do these hand prints on these canvases that we were given by our friend Sandy. There were 4 of them so I thought Lena could give one to Tony, Thomas could give one to Eric, and both kids could give one to Grandpa Dean. Lena did a really good job of hold still on her hand print.
Thomas was not quite as good. The footprints turned out alright because I could hold onto his foot pretty tight. With the hands we had a hard time controlling them. We tried to do it while he was sleeping, but we put his hand in the paint he would sort of wake up and clench his fist. So it turned out a little messy, but it is still cute.
For Father's Day it was pretty low key. We went over to my parents house and had some ribs.
Helen Eva Bogunovich Puz of
Vashon Island, Washington, passed away on Sunday, June 10, 2012.
Helen was born to Mande and Mate
Bogunovich on December 27, 1912 in Bacina, Croatia. She traveled to this country with her mother
as an infant and passed through Ellis Island in New York on their way to join
Mate in Montana. The family moved to
Washington and settled in Dockton, Vashon Island where they joined a community
of other Croatian immigrants. As the
eldest child in a fast growing community of immigrants, she became the
godmother to a score of children who lovingly called her Kuma.
After graduating from Vashon High
School, Helen earned her degree at Beutel Business School in Tacoma where she became
proficient in the now lost art of shorthand. During the depression, women were expected to
give up their jobs when they married and she did so when she married Anthony (Tony)
Puz of Tacoma in November, 1936.
The family moved to Tahlequah,
Vashon Island, in 1945 with their three daughters JoAnn, Madeline, and Rosemary,
and son Don. A second son, Tom, was born
after the family moved to Vashon. While
her husband commuted to Tacoma to work, Helen raised currants and strawberries
on the farm to make extra money to help support her growing family. In the summers, she worked for Wax Orchards
as a supervisor in the cherry cannery.
In 1954, Helen’s husband Tony
perished in a fire that destroyed the family home. After spending several months living in the
St. Patrick’s parish house in Dockton, the family moved to Center where Helen
raised her five children and where she lived until 2009. She moved to Federal Way to be closer to her
daughter Jo Ann and son-in-law Dean Saucedo.
Tragedy struck again in 1983 when
Helen’s son Tom succumbed to a brain tumor.
About the same time, she underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy in her
battle against breast cancer.
Helen was a master gardener in
the truest definition of the word. She
taught many people the art of cultivating and growing and was well known for
her beautiful collection of dahlias which she shared with many of her friends. After retirement, she joined the Vashon
Garden Club where she learned the art of flower arranging, both fresh and
dry. Many family members have the fruits
of her talent in their homes. She held
several offices over the years in the Vashon Garden Club and won many awards
for her flower arrangements in flower shows both off and on the Island. Helen was a faithful parishioner of St. John
Vianney church and every Sunday for many years, her flowers adorned the altar
of the church.
Helen was a real estate agent for
Frederick’s Rand Realty in the late 1950s and was a custodian at Vashon High
School for ten years until her retirement in the mid-seventies.
Helen was a celebrity beyond Vashon
Island when the story of the “Bicycle in the Tree” became known. Her son Don abandoned a donated bicycle in
the woods north of the intersection at Center.
When his bicycle was discovered imbedded in the tree, Helen finally set
the record straight in a story published in the Beachcomber newspaper in 2009.
In 2002, Helen was chosen to be the
Grand Marshal of the Strawberry Festival parade and rode in a carriage drawn by
a team of horses owned by Tom Stewart of Misty Isle Farm. She was accompanied by her two sisters,
Jennie Livers and Mary Campbell, who had been born and raised in Dockton.
In September of 2010, Helen was a
speaker at the dedication of the Dockton’s Historical Trail where she talked
about growing up in the thriving town of Dockton. Her opening remark, “If I had known I was
going to be giving this speech when I was growing up, I would have taken better
notes,” delighted the crowd.
Helen had a quick wit and bright
mind. She started each day working the
crossword puzzle in the Tacoma News Tribune.
She was an avid Mariners fan and during football season rooted for the
Seahawks. In the winter, she cheered on
the Gonzaga University basketball team.
Helen was a lifelong Democrat who
closely followed politics and enjoyed a good discussion on the merits of her
political party.
Helen was predeceased by her parents,
Mate and Mande Bogunovich; husband Tony, her son Tom, and her sister Jennie
Livers. She leaves behind her sister
Mary and her husband Albert Campbell, and scores of nieces and nephews.
Helen leaves behind her children Jo
Ann and her husband Dean Saucedo, Madeline Bost, Rosemary and her husband Bob
Lowman, Don and his wife Su, and her daughter-in-law Doris Paulsen. Her legacy includes grandchildren Julie
(Dave) Freiheit, Mark Crane, Dean (Arlin) Crane, Susan (Doug) Bryan, Mary
Crane, Karen (Tom) Berquist, Wendy Bost, Sandra Bost (Patrick Weaver), Jeff
(Mayada) Lowman, Debbie Hogan, Cindy Lowman, Brian (Wendy) Puz, Adair Davidson,
Erica (Mike) Ballou, Tony (Susan) Puz, Danielle (Eric) Bingham and Wes Paulsen. She also leaves behind 36 great grandchildren
and 4 great-great grandchildren. She
also leaves behind scores of friends, some who have lovingly called her Mom.
Funeral services are being
arranged by Island Funeral Service. A
funeral mass will be held at St. John Vianney on Thursday, June 14th,
2012, at 11:30 a.m. with a viewing preceding the service from 10:00 to 11:15
a.m. A reception will follow at St. John Vianney. Interment will be at Calvary Cemetery in
Tacoma following the reception.
In lieu of flowers, donations may
be made to the “Helen Puz Memorial Scholarship – VMIGC” (Vashon Maury Island
Garden Club) at P.O. Box 2113 – Vashon, WA 98070 or to the “Vashon Maury Island
Heritage Association” at P.O. Box 723 – Vashon, WA 98070.
Here is the story of Helen's Life that was read at her 90th Birthday Party:
Helen Eva Bogunovich Puz
The Old Country
Our mother’s story begins in
Bacina, (Bah Chee Nah) Croatia,
with the coming together of her father Mate Bogunovich and her mother Mande
Tomacevich. Like many young men of that
time, Mate had gone to America
in search of a better life. In about
1911, he returned to the old country, now searching for a wife which he found
when he reconnected with the lovely Mande who had grown up while he had been
gone.
When Mate left for America again,
promising to send for Mande when he had earned enough money for her passage, he
did not know she was pregnant with their child. Mande went into labor on Christmas Day,
1912, attended only by midwives and the women of her family as there were no
doctors in the tiny village. Mande’s
labor lasted for three days and when her infant was born, both she and the baby
were not expected to live.
But both mother and child did
survive and baby Helen thrived under the care of her mother and grandmother,
with whom they lived. Back in Montana, Mate was
working in one of the many coalmines. He
was anxious for his little family to join him and when he had saved enough
money, he sent for them. Mande said
goodbye to her family & friends in Bacina and set out for America.
The passage on the ship was
difficult and frightening. Mande managed
as best she could, but back then in the days before Pampers, sanitation was
limited. By the time they sailed into New York Harbor
and landed on Ellis Island, the Gateway of
European Immigrants, baby Helen had a severe diaper rash. The rash nearly sent them back to the old
country, but after several days in quarantine with better facilities, the rash
cleared up and they were free to leave Ellis Island and on to Butte, Montana.
Traveling by train in a foreign
country, speaking no English, Mande had no idea how far she had to travel or
how many days it would take to get to Montana. Pinned to her dress was her ticket that
trailed down her front. As the train
rolled across the country, the conductor would tear off a stub at each
stop. Her only way to know that she was
getting closer to her destination was the ever decreasing length of that
ticket. When the last stub was taken, she
knew her next stop was Butte
where Mate would be waiting.
But Mate wasn’t waiting or at
least she didn’t see him. For a week
Mate had gone to the railroad station to meet Mande, not knowing about the
quarantine or when she would be arriving.
He would sit and wait for the train to pull in and search for her. On that particular day, as he sat and waited
for the train, tired from another hard day in the mines, he fell asleep and
never saw his family arrive. Not seeing
Mate, Mande gave the boarding house address to a taxi driver, but when she
arrived there, Mate wasn’t there either.
Eventually he woke up, realized the train had come and gone and went
back to his boarding house where he was united with his little family.
New Life in America
Although Butte,
Montana had provided the start of a new life
in America,
it was not one of the best towns to live in.
New immigrants such as Mate found jobs in the mines, but the work was
irregular, and the pay was poor. It was
a time when workers were organizing unions to try to better their conditions
and strikes were frequent. It was a
hard time financially for the family. In
1917, the family left Montana and joined
Mate’s cousins, the Krilich’s in Tacoma. Many Croatians, some of them from Bacina, had
settled in the Ruston and Old Town
areas of that city.
New Life in Tacoma
The Great War in Europe ended the year Helen started school. Helen remembers how the Smelter and the mills
all blew their factory whistles again and again to celebrate the ending of the
war.
Life was better in Tacoma and Mate had work
but he wasn’t happy living in the city.
One Sunday, the family visited friends who lived in Dockton on Vashon Island.
They had two acres of land on the water, a cow, chickens, pigs, and a
big garden. They could dig clams on the
beach and fish.
Dockton at that time was a
thriving community with the Martinolich shipyard, a dry dock, sawmill, fish
cannery, and two hotels. Mate thought it
was an ideal place to live and he soon found five wooded acres with a crude
cabin on it. Mate borrowed the $900.00
it was selling for and bought the property.
New Life in Dockton
On the walls here today you
may have seen the short stories that Helen has written about her growing up in
Dockton. Others are excerpts from
letters received from many of you.
So you might have read of
how Helen helped her Dad to clear the land so that they could plant crops. It’s hard for us today to imagine how hard
that work was, using the tools that they had.
Today bulldozers come in and yank stumps from the ground. Back then there were no bulldozers and Mate
set dynamite charges to blast the stumps from the ground.
Helen’s status as an only
child was soon to come to an end. Mande
gave birth to her second daughter; Jennie in 1920 and a third daughter, Mary
was born in 1921. Helen was not too
pleased with her new sisters as the babies brought new duties for her. The family did not have a washing machine and
it was Helen’s job to wash their diapers using a washboard in a galvanized tub.
Helen and the other Dockton
children walked to their two-room schoolhouse where one teacher taught first
through fourth grade, and another taught fifth through eighth. The teachers were also the janitors who
cleaned the classrooms and had to fire up the stove in the morning for heat.
When
Helen was in the 3rd grade, one of the old hotels was converted into
a school and the children no longer had to trot outside to the outhouse, but
instead enjoyed indoor plumbing and even electricity.
With
ToysRus in every town in America
today and children’s rooms crowded with toys of every description, it is hard
to imagine what life was like for children when Helen was growing up. Poorer kids like her did not have toys and
she had never owned a doll. One day her third grade teacher asked the children how many of
them had dolls. Every girl raised her
hand except Helen. A few days later, she
was trying to put her books in her desk, but something seemed to be blocking
them. When she looked, she discovered a
doll her teacher had hidden there for her.
Helen named the doll Jack after a cousin in the Old Country and her
mother made clothes for him.
Many of the Croatian adults
could not read or write English so Helen became the teacher and the adults the
students. When her dad studied for his
citizenship test, Helen was his tutor.
With no television or movie
theaters, entertainment was scarce. The
highlight of the year was the school Christmas pageant. Everyone in town came - even people with no
children. Santa Claus would give each
child a stocking with candy, nuts and oranges in them.
At the end of the school
year, the whole town celebrated again with a ferry ride to Point Defiance
Park for the school
picnic which included a visit to the zoo.
Life in General
Once the land was cleared on
the little farm, strawberries were planted but they were a money loser. They diversified and planted loganberries,
currants, gooseberries and sour cherry trees.
When the Great Depression hit, the price of fruit dropped to about a
penny a pound. The once thriving Dockton
was no more. Men were without jobs and
just getting to Tacoma
to look for work was difficult. A dozen
eggs would get Mate just enough money for ferry fare.
Fishing could be good if you
had a captain who knew where to find fish and your nets didn’t tear. One season Mate was on a boat that did very
well. He made $3,000.00 and was able to
pay off all their bills and still put some money in the bank.
The communities on Vashon
and Maury Islands had developed along their
shores. Dockton could be reached only by
boat when it was first settled. In the
1920’s, a road was built to link Dockton to Vashon Island. Each Sunday, having nothing better to do,
people from Dockton would walk up to the construction area to see how much
progress had been made that week.
The beach where the
workhorses that were used to build the road took cleansing swims later became Dockton Park.
Nowadays almost no one ventures into the cool water of the park, but
back then less pampered kids learned to swim and frolic on the beach. Seafood was plentiful – clams were there for
the digging. Fishermen brought in a
cornucopia of gifts from the sea - rock cod, sole, salmon, smelts, squid, and
an occasional octopus.
Shoes, clothes or household
items had to be bought in Tacoma,
a steamboat trip that cost 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children under
12. You could bring just about anything
on the ferry – even cows and other animals.
The only thing you couldn’t bring on the ferry was a car!!!
Homes without electricity
used kerosene lamps for lighting. One of
Helen’s chores was cleaning the chimneys on the lamps. When they needed kerosene, she’d walk to the
general store with her can and when it was filled, the store owner, Theodore
Berry, would cap the spout with a small piece of potato to prevent spills as
she carried it home.
There was no television,
video games or CD players back then. A
windup phonograph served as family entertainment. Helen was in high school before they bought a
radio. Before that they entertained
themselves by playing cards, visiting the neighbors, or doing needlework. Occasionally they would get to see a matinee
in Tacoma after
they had finished their shopping. This
was before the “talking movies” became popular and Charlie Chaplin was a big
hit. Helen longed to ride a bicycle, but
there was never enough money to buy one.
With no place to skate, she didn’t learn how to do that.
At age 14, Helen was first
asked to be a godmother. Over the years
she has become godmother to 10 children.
Six of them are here today: Paul
Krilich, Francis Krilich-Shensky, Helen Krancjevich-Brocard, Kathy
Roncevich-Botka, Mary Lou Livers-Bertin, Amy Campbell-Hassel, Margaret
Oliver-Bickel,
Life after High School
After graduating from the
8th grade, Helen attended high school in what later became the old Burton grade school above
Judd Creek. Eleventh and twelfth grades
were where the old Vashon grade school was.
It wasn’t until after she graduated that they built the high school at Center,
which has since been replaced with another new high school. She has outlived the three school buildings
that educated her.
After high school Helen
attended Buetel Business
College in Tacoma.
When she graduated from Buetel, the country was in the depths of the
Depression and she was fortunate to be able to get a job at the WPA office in Tacoma. Although she and her family knew many people
in the Croatian community, there was someone she had never met. Then, at a Croatian dance in Seattle, she met the dashing and handsome
Tony Puz. Tony was a multiply talented
athlete, adept at gymnastics, swimming, diving, and boxing as well as at
charming the ladies. But he fell for the
shy country girl from Dockton.
They were married at Saint
Patrick’s Church in Dockton on November 28th, 1936. The first nine years of their marriage was
spent in Tacoma,
where their first three children were born,
– JoAnn, Madeline, and Rosemary.
But Helen longed to return to Vashon and in 1945, they moved to their
farm at the Tahlequah Y, two miles north of the ferry dock. That year she gave birth to her fourth child
and first son, Don. In 1948 her son Tom
was born. Tony commuted each day to work
in Tacoma.
Life on the farm was
busy. Like many families of that time,
they had a cow, pigs, chickens, rabbits and a large garden. When Madeline turned twelve she added a
horse, Chico,
to the menagerie, which also included a dog named Daisy and a family of cats.
Extra acreage was turned
into strawberry and currant fields. But
the fruit crops were a disappointment.
Just as the currents came into full production the bottom fell out of
the market and it hardly paid to harvest the crop. To supplement the family income Helen worked
for Wax Orchards for many years during the harvest season, as did her children
when they were old enough.
In February 1954, Helen and
her three daughters were at a high school basketball game. The two younger boys were at a neighbor's
house. As they were heading home they
saw a great red glow in the sky. Helen
sensed even before she got there that her house was on fire. Firemen from all over the Island
were battling to put out the blaze but the house was a total loss. That loss was compounded the next morning
when her brother-in-law, Frank Puz, found the body of Tony in the ruins.
Vashon Island is a community that cares and with the help of the
Red Cross and the many donations from people, Helen’s bereaved family was given
a new start. The family moved into St.
Patrick’s unused church rectory where they stayed for several months. Later that year, Helen moved her family into
the house that she still lives in today.
She has been there for 48 years!
As her children grew older,
Helen tried her hand selling real estate working for one her godchildren, Helen
Krancjevich. While she had good knowledge
of the island and enjoyed working with people, she didn’t enjoy the selling
aspect.
Just as she was preparing to
job hunt in town, Helen was offered a job as a custodian at the High
School. It may not have been as
glamorous as an office job, but she sure couldn’t beat the commute – a three
minute walk over to the school. Helen
was a favorite with the teachers and when she retired, they presented her with
a small greenhouse that she uses to this day to start her vegetables and
flowers in the spring.
Helen’s life has been filled
with joys and also with sadness. Helen
watched as her son, Tom was struck with what was at first a mysterious illness
that was finally diagnosed as a brain tumor.
After surgery, the family was hopeful that Tom would make a complete
recovery and for a time it appeared that would be the case. Sadly though, the symptoms returned and the
tumor grew back. Helen and the family
watched helplessly as the tumor took away the young man they loved. Tom died on March 5, 1983. It was one of the lowest days in Helen’s
life, but she has his two children, Tony and Danielle and Tom’s widow Doris,
close to her here on Vashon, along with Doris’
husband Dean and their son Wes.
Helen’s other children all
live locally except for Madeline, who resides in New Jersey.
Madeline is a freelance writer who covers road racing and track and
field. Her sport has taken her around
the world to compete.
If you call Helen and get no
answer she might be anywhere: Out in her
garden; at a Garden Club meeting, at the Vashon Senior
Center, at a church
activity, at her widow’s club weekly dinner night; at her literature class; at
a Pinochle party; or in town visiting with her family.
At ninety, Helen is a poster
child for longevity and youthfulness. She
still drives her own car and lives alone in her own house. She reads the paper daily, does crossword
puzzles to keep her mind sharp, and always has the TV or radio tuned in to the
latest football, basketball or baseball game.
She also has her own strong opinions on the politics in our country.
Last year she basked in the
warmth of the whole Island when she served as
the Grand Marshall for the Vashon Island Strawberry Festival parade. Her friends all agreed that she was the
perfect Islander to be chosen for the honor and she was enthusiastically
greeted at every event during the Festival.
Helen’s inner strength,
determination, “never give up” attitude should be an inspiration for us
all. We all love you very much Mom. Our birthday wish for you is many more years
of health and happiness, and that we may share it with you!
Story compiled and written by Debbie Hogan, Helen’s granddaughter, to
be read by her children at Helen’s 90th birthday party on December
28, 2002.
