Ardent reader, gardener, cook, cross-stitcher and chocolate lover Bonnie Miller Pieper passed away peacefully at age 92. She leaves three children, four surviving grandchildren (who were trained young to call her "Grandma Bonnie Beautiful"), ten great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandson. Mom was one of eight children; one brother, Willard, survives her, along with many nieces and nephews.

She and our father, Fred Miller, belonged to the "benign neglect" theory of parenting, which gave their grateful offspring a childhood of glorious freedom. She was a force of nature and was always our champion. Mom was also an outstanding, creative, and generous gift-giver. Not exactly athletic (she considered lying on the couch with a bag of licorice while watching Jack LaLanne's exercise show a worthy workout), she did learn to belly dance and also danced the can-can while folding towels.

She was known to hide chocolate in various places (bathrobe pocket, pitcher in cupboard, etc.), making for an unintended fun hide and seek project for her children.

Mom loved to cook and could stretch a pound of hamburger like nobody's business. Her specialties included sukiyaki, tacos, lasagna, and a chocolate birthday cake at least one daughter still yearns for.

When a college class required her to cook organ meats such as brains, kidneys, and other bits as homework, she went for it, resulting in this scenario:

"Mom, what's for dinner?"

"I'll tell you after you eat it."

In spite of having three children by the time she was old enough to vote, she went back to college to become a home economics teacher. Eventually, she challenged the administration test (to avoid having to take statistics), which she passed, becoming superintendent of schools for Elk Creek School District in California.

As a travel-lover, she once declared she would turn fifty on the Khyber Pass. That turned out to be an unrealized goal, yet she managed to travel to many countries. To shake a case of the blues after her husband, Fred Miller, passed away, she moved to Haiti to teach local women sellable crafts. Her letters home enthralled her family, and also coworkers of her children, who would frequently ask, "Do you have any letters from your mom?"

Mom outlived two husbands, showing a remarkable talent for cheerful, selfless, loving caretaking. At seventeen, she had her first marriage proposal. She was still being proposed to at age eighty-nine.

We will always miss her. But we'll take great comfort in the countless truly wonderful memories Mom leaves behind.