Grace Ann Japhet

Grace A. Japhet, daughter of Fred and Lottie Kreutzkamp and beloved wife of Floyd Japhet, went to be with our Lord on May 18, 2016. She passed peacefully from natural causes at St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Washington, surrounded by her loving family. Grace was born in Aberdeen, Washington on July 5, 1932. As the middle child in a family of six daughters, Grace would grow up to marry Floyd, one of the eldest children in a family of six sons. Grace met her soulmate when she was just 15 years old. Floyd Japhet, who had recently returned from the Navy, was fulfilling a promise to celebrate a friend’s graduation. “Ray asked me if he could bring along his date (Grace), who had also promised to accompany him on his graduation night. I said sure—I’ll take the both of you out,” explains Floyd. The three of them went together to a dance hall, but before the night was over, Grace knew that her future would be with Floyd. “I asked her out on a date, and she said that would be just fine.” The next day, Floyd drove out to pick Grace up at her sister’s house on Kaiser Road. “She was washing her hair in a bucket of water,” Floyd recalls. ”She’d been down the way swimming. When I walked in the door, she threw her hair in a towel. Her hair was hanging down and plastered to her face sopping wet, and right then and there, I fell in love with her. She was the prettiest thing I’d ever looked at—she just about made my heart jump out of my chest.” The two of them spent their first date sharing stories and hamburgers at Eagan’s Drive In, in Westside Olympia—a date which would blossom into 66 precious years of marriage, six children and their spouses, several grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren. Grace always kept busy on her little farm at Summit Lake—milking her own cows and goats, raising chickens, gardening, and hunting and fishing with her family. “I remember when we were in Northern Alberta hunting moose,” Floyd recalls. At a whopping four foot eleven inches tall, Grace, tough as nails, managed to “help pack out an 800 pound moose in weather that was 20 degrees below zero.” Grace was a true pioneer woman—she had to be in order to raise six energetic kids on a lake in the woods without initial power, phone, or indoor plumbing. When asked to describe a memory of his mother, son Joe recalls how, “Mom used to make us go out in the back and pick out a switch. She’d put it up on top of the fridge for when we got in trouble. She hardly ever used it, but I remember this one time—John broke his stick up into a bunch of little one-inch pieces.” Laughing, he continues, “He thought he’d gotten rid of it, but it made Mom so mad, she just used mine on him instead. It never really hurt, but we sure pretended like it did—we didn’t want to get any more than we had to. I’m going to miss her—just seeing her and talking to her.” In addition to raising her children, Grace also raised prize-winning racehorses. She loved animals and always had a bucket of treats ready for the neighborhood ducks, dogs, crows, and hummingbirds that flocked to her door on a daily basis. She also loved to go shopping, had a tender spot for trinkets and stuffed toys, and harbored a hidden sweet tooth. “She loved to bake and decorate cakes. She made beautiful wedding cakes for all six of her children,” recalls her daughter, Linda. “Above all else though, Mom loved God and her family.” When asked what defined Grace, her husband, children, and grandchildren all agree that Grace was a woman defined by her selflessness. Grace’s love was and continues to be a testament of God’s love. She was “generous, and put other’s needs above her own—she gave everything she had in order to help someone,” explains her daughter, Peggy. Her son, Don, remembers how, “Even when there was barely enough money, she always made sure we had a great Christmas—not a good one, but a great one. I don’t know how she always pulled it off, but she did.” “Mom never forgot a birthday, anniversary or holiday,” her son, Jim, remembers. “She kept an address book with everyone’s birthday, and would send hand written cards to everyone in her book, Birthday cards, Christmas cards, Easter cards, not a holiday went by when Grandma didn’t send a card,” adds granddaughter, Christi. Grace contributed to several charities, including St. Jude’s Hospital, Smile Train, and World Vision, and also sponsored several children from nations around the world. “She loved to give money to the homeless,” says Floyd with a smile. “She had to be throttled down or she’d have given the whole place away.” “She always wanted to make sure you had something to eat,” adds her son, John; “No one ever went hungry with Mom.” A memorial service to celebrate Grace’s life will be held at Summit Lake Community Church on Tuesday, May 24, 2016 at 2:30 p.m., immediately followed by a potluck-style reception at the Summit Lake Community Center. In lieu of flowers, the Japhet family has asked that any donations be made to St. Jude’s Hospital or Summit Lake Community Church. Please leave memories of Grace or condolences for her family in the Guestbook below.