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Betty Ann Phelps
Submitted by Mike Phelps

Our Mom was a unique and special person. She was kind and gentle yet tough and strong.
She loved little children more than anything else. She was a day care provided for more than forty years. She raised her own six children, taking care of her nine grandchildren as well as the majority of the children in our small Midwestern town. As the children became adults, married and had children of their own, Mom took care of their children as well. All of the children in town and the kids in the preschool where she volunteered her time knew her as Miss Betty. It would have made Mom so happy to see and visit with all the generations of Betty’s kids who came to say goodbye at her funeral.

Miss Betty was quoted in the local paper, ‘I’ve always been drawn to children and they have been drawn to me I like their honesty, their imagination. They’re fun to be around. Even when they’re bad, they’re good.’ This is how she thought of life. Her riches came not in money but in the successes of her children, she accomplished more with less than anyone I have ever known. Often doing without herself, she made sure we all had what was needed.
Mom’s life was threatened by breast cancer for the first time more than forty years ago. She was a fighter. Surgery, follow up treatment, many days filled with quiet suffering led to thirty years of quality living before we would encounter this insidious disease again. Mom showed us through her life what it means to be a fighter.

In her honor, we reach out to play a small role in the defeat of this disease that attacks all of us when it attacks our mothers, wives, sisters and loved ones. May we reach a day where no one is without their loved one because of this terrible disease. Together we can make a difference. Miss Betty would be proud of us, she would want us to do it for the children. We do.