Tribute to Ellen Rice Brooker

Ellen Rice Brooker
Aug 9, 1953 - Oct 30, 2008

This was the shock of the week. Friday we found out a good friend had passed on Oct. 30. You miss these things when you don't take the local paper. She had been sick for awhile and the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong, by the time they discovered it was autoimmune hepatitis - it was too late. Her liver was too far gone to recover or for a transplant.

I knew Ellen since I was three. She was my hero and my babysitter. She taught me how to tie my shoes, play the piano by ear, taught me how to bowl and how to have a stinking ton of fun!

When I was really little she knew I thought it was cool that she was in the band, so at one home game she came up in the stands so I could see her uniform. It was so cool that when I hit sixth grade I joined the band.

Ellen always had a big smile for everyone. She was one of those rare people whose face literally glowed. She also loved travel and adventure.

She also cared about the young kids around her.

When I was in junior high, she saw that none of us kids had anything to do and she wanted to give us a place where we could hang out, have fun and be away from bad influences.

She went to her pastor and asked to turn the church basement into a youth center. I think Ellen was around 21 or so at the time. He agreed. Next on her list was to find people to volunteer cool stuff for the center. By the end, she had a pool table, ice hockey table, foose ball table and a bunch of board games.

Toss in a really little black and white TV with coat hangers and other wires and roughly a ton of tin foil for a great snowy reception and waa laa! The Methodist Youth Center was born!

Ellen spent most the time in the kitchen making popcorn and and homemade pizza.

There were a number of us who didn't live in walking distance of the center, so she'd stuff us in her car, pick us up and take us home. Sometimes we didn't get home until around midnight.

It wasn't until a lot of years later that I realised what it took for her to pull off all she did for us. She worked full time, was actively involved in her church, then there was us and somewhere in between she had a social life. LOL

One of my favourite memories was hanging out with her and her friends. Thankfully, her friends didn't mind having a kid in junior high tagging along with them every week and I didn't mind people making fun of me because I hung out with my former babysitter. :]

Anyway, we were at my bus drivers house (his daughter and Ellen were good friends) eating popcorn, homemade pizza drinking pop and playing cards. About 2:00 in the morning we got a call from mom asking where the heck I was.

"I'm with Ellen at the Webers playing cards."

Mom ordered me home. I never have figured out what her problem was. I was with Ellen and her friends. The worst that could happen is I might eat too much pizza and throw up. LOL

Anyway! We had a big laugh about it and mom will continue to be made fun of for it till the day she dies.

I could sit here all day and write stories but I'll end it here.

The world lost a gem.