Birth date: Sep 23, 1925 Death date: Jun 14, 2017
Priscilla Harmon White died June 14, 2017 from cardiac arrest, near the home she cherished for 61 years in Palo Alto, California. She was born in 1925 in Watertown, Massachusetts to Grace (Pendleton) Harmon and William Robertson H Read Obituary
Beautifully said Susan. Thanks for sharing! I, too have so many fond memories of your Mother. Much Love! Jody
Dear Mom, Dear Grammy, Dear Priscilla, Ninety-one years. A long full life with so many memories. And we have so many memories of you. You were full of curiosity and interest in the world. Your love of flowers and birds and the wish not only to enjoy them but to know their names, their scents or calls. Sophie remembers your fondness for hummingbirds and up at the cottage, you telling her and her sister all about the different lake and forest birds. The wish to travel and see the world and all it’s beautiful antiquities. Remember our journeys across the United States? You gazing out of the window at all the wonders of this vast country (oh Penny, Susan, Jon look at this!) while we had our noses stuck in comic books in the back of the station wagon? Your love of the well-crafted antique and knowing its name and its story. And your love of stories and poetry which you shared with all your children and grandchildren. Sophie and Kat remember you singing and reciting poems and nursery rhymes by heart, knitting booties for pre-mature babies with you, doing puzzles together….and your yummy sandwiches! I gained a love of art and literature and…..dancing. (Remember your tap dance years?) and creating a beautiful home and the love of seeing the different cultures of the world. And baking…….way back, before Betty Crocker, I do remember watching you make from scratch, oh so yummy Boston Cream Pie! More recently, your memories began to flood in and many that you had hidden away for so many years from a difficult time in your childhood, popped up again. You were from a generation that didn’t burden others with your troubles but carried on in crisis. These memories brought you much pain…. and pain to many around you as you tried to understand and make sense of them. And you also had a longing for home: Oak Knoll, snow, the seasonal changes. You never became a Californian even after 70 years but always remained a New Englander. But in our last few biweekly phone calls something began to change. You seemed freed from these painful memories and seemed to have made peace with others and yourself and so we had time to talk about the birds in the bird bath, remembering the Bobbsey Twins books we loved to read as children, how lucky you were to have Andrew there and your coming road trip with him to “home”. All of your masks of earthly life began to fall away and you could laugh and just be you. Thank you for those last moments together. And thank you for being my mom and my daughters grandmother and Edi’s mother-in-law. Susan, Edi, Sophie and Katharina Holzer-White Köniz, Switzerland
