Barbara L. Glasgow

Love means never having to say goodbye, but on October 4, 2018, our beloved mother Barbara “Bobbie” L. Glasgow passed away in her sleep. Barbara was born to Erik Ander Ask (Sweden) and Theodora (Toddy) Janette Hosch (North Dakota) on May 16, 1927 in Olympia, Washington. Barbara is survived by daughters, Mary D. (Taylor) Henderson and Frankie L. (Taylor) Shepherd-Smith, Gayle L. (Glasgow) Jones, Candace J. (Nagel) Van Oeveren; and son, Gilbert G. Glasgow, Jr.; sons-in-law, Frank L. Smith and Kimber Van Oeveren; daughter-in-law, Mary Poage Glasgow; 13 grandchildren; 23 great children; four great-great grandchildren; plus her beloved dog, Maxie. She also is survived by the grandchildren of her stepfather, Samuel C. Simmons, Sandra, Larry and Lee Simmons; many Swedish relatives; plus a variety of step-grandchildren and ex-in-laws, as she held no ill will towards anyone. Mother was proud of her Swedish heritage. Her father Erik was born in 1897 in Sweden and immigrated to Canada in 1921. In the 1920s, young men from Norway and Sweden would travel to Canada to work on the Canadian Railroad, which is what Erik did. While in Canada, he came into the United States under a three-week Manifest (1924) via Seattle. While in the U.S., he (29) met Toddy (19) at a dance and they married (1926), lived in National, Washington, where he was a millworker. Although from all accounts her parents had a wonderful life together, when Barbara was six years old, she watched her father get on a ship (Swedish American Line, 1932) headed back to Sweden. We believe that he had come into the United States from Canada illegally and had to return to Sweden. In the early 2000s, she was able to contact Swedish relatives, where she discovered her father had never told his relatives he had a daughter in the U.S. Although she was unable to have contact with him while he was alive, she has had several Swedish relatives visit her here in the U.S. Mom was devoted to her mother, Toddy, and step-father, Samuel Carl Simmons. Toddy and Sam provided her and her children a place to live during the hardships of life on top of “Tumwater Hill.” Many memorable vacations were spent with Grandma/Grandpa and Mom clam digging and salmon fishing at Ilwaco, Washington (aka, Little Olympia) with the Simmons clan. After several years as a single parent raising five children, Bobbie would go to become an accountant, remarry her husband, Gil Glasgow, and retire from the Thurston County Auditor’s Office where she had many lifelong friends. Mom enjoyed her retirement years. She did a little traveling (cruise to Alaska 2010), fishing, gardening, reading mystery novels, and volksmarching. Most of all, she enjoyed her family. Ever the ultimate realist, in her 80s, Mom had made her own funeral arrangements before the onset of Alzheimer’s/Dementia. In her funeral paperwork she wrote, “Love you all!” An emotional read for family members as the decline in her mental abilities had made her non-verbal in the last three years of her life. Donations in her name can be made to Alzheimer’s’ Association and American Cancer Society.