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Gil Price


What a wonderful idea to honor the mothers and women in our lives!


My family originated in the Midwest. Dad was born in Williston, North Dakota and mom was born in Youngstown, Ohio. Harriett Callahan, ‘Mom’, had a very humble beginning growing up in Ohio, Wyoming and California. She was the fourth of five children and the last surviving child in her family. She had a tough life early on and had to struggle, especially with her health. Sadly, she passed away on April 14, 2010 from complications due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).


Despite her struggles, Mom managed to stay upbeat, cheerful and super friendly. She was a people magnet and knew no strangers. She talked to everyone and anyone. Her friends came from all walks of life and all parts of the country and the world, but she considered them all friends.


Mom was elegant, beautiful, and a stylish dresser. I didn’t realize that her sense of style started decades ago when she often made her own clothing with her beloved mother’s sewing machine. I saw just how stylish she was when preparing the slide show for her 75th birthday. Wow—could she dress and she was stunningly attractive. She was also quite spirited and direct, which was sometimes a bit shocking to folks here in Seattle. Does this sound familiar?! Her directness was never meant to be unkind; she just wanted you to know how she felt! I spoke to our priest many years ago about this and I commented on how she knew all the right buttons to push with me. He took a deep breath and calmly replied, “she should, she installed them.” Underneath it all, mom was always a kind and generous spirit.


My parents had a lot of parties when I was growing up. She was the ultimate hostess and loved to have a good time! She was the bright light shining in every room and at every party. You knew when Mom was in the room and she loved every minute of a great party.


Among many things, I loved my mom’s sense of humor. I


still laugh at the things I remember her saying. Mom had a number of very funny, what I call, ‘Harriett-isms.’ Here are some of my favorites.


We lived in Rome in 1982. Mom and the entire family absolutely loved Rome. She liked to share the story that Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport tarmac had a number of skid marks from planes landing but there were only one set of high heel skid marks. She liked to tell everyone that these were hers as she was trying to stop the plane from taking off as we returned to the USA!


Another favorite story of mine is when we returned to Seattle from Maui after celebrating her 65th birthday and we waited to deplane (they were having problems getting the ramp to the plane). As people started to grow impatient, mom looked outside the window and said, ‘It should be any minute before they open the door as it looks like they are scraping the dead geese off of the wings and engines.’ It had everyone laughing and it wasn’t long after that we deplaned.


Mom suffered from high blood pressure. She could feel it rising, would start to panic and begin having problems breathing. She’d always call me saying that she couldn’t breathe (while she was breathing), I’d tell her to call 911 as I


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couldn’t get to her fast enough and within minutes Seattle’s hunkiest fire department medics would be on the scene. They’d immediately take her blood pressure and it wasn’t uncommon to have it over 200+. They’d look at her and say, “Does it normally get this high?” and she’d say “Only when I have five hunky firemen standing over me!” Everyone would immediately start laughing.


I hope you enjoyed some good laughs while reading this mini- tribute about my beloved mom as she would have wanted it that way.


Happy Mother’s day to all of the mothers and women who made us who we are today.


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