Elizabeth M. Granicher

""It is hard to believe what a wonderful life I have had! 85 years ago I was born in Hamadan, Persia (as it was known then) to missionary parents. When my youngest sister was born (with severe cleft palate and harelip), needing urgent surgery, my mother and the 4 of us girls - aged 9, 6, 3 and 5 months - crossed a terribly stormy Atlantic Ocean in Feb. 1932, arriving in NYC, and starting my adventures toward making Denver my home. ""There was Princeton, NJ for 3rd and 4th grades where I had the happiest days of my childhood, and I remember most of them. Our phone # was 235J, and when our games were over for the day, we would stalk a funny old man with white hair sticking out all over his head on his 4pm walk across campus. He tried to scare us - playfully - which he did - but we loved him. And I think he enjoyed us as well. We later found out the funny haired man was Albert Einstein. We also spent 1 1/2 years in Atlantic City, and finally Daddy had come home. Then we went to where his church was in Titusville, NJ on the banks of the Delaware River, next to Washington's Crossing. I was in 5-8 grades with 8 kids in my class. It was there that Wendy's mother, Bunny, came to live and bond with us for a lifetime gift! ""As luck would have it, I was chosen to go to Northfield Seminary for girls (now Northfield Mount Herman School) and with scholarships, I had 4 wonderful high school years at this boarding school in Massachusetts. I loved it! I made so many friends, had so many experiences and it made me blossom into who I am today. I graduated in 1943 during the war. I then attended the College of Wooster in Ohio - where my folks and 3 sisters also went. After 2 years there I became an army cadet nurse and transferred to Presbyterian Hospital in New York, graduating as a RN and a BS degree with a diploma from Columbia University signed by Dwight D. Eisenhower. ""Children's Hospital in Honolulu hired me - but I would have to pay my own way there. So I went to work in a higher paying Psychiatric Neurological Hospital Unit in NYC. After 6 months of that, I was going crazy myself and learning all my naughty language, so with a classmate, we started our trek to Hawaii. We stopped to work at Denver Children's Hospital in the winter storm of January 3, 1949. It took 3 weeks before we could see the mountains! Other classmates heard about our adventures and came out too. A good move - within a year 5 out of the 6 of us were married! ""Here I met Don and how lucky was I to get such a great catch! He was an engineer with the old Stearns-Roger Corp and built gas plants, etc. Our first home was in Park Hill where we were involved in church, community, and politics. When searching for a home away from the jets overhead, we came across Vivian Gilbert at the drawing board architecting houses for her husband's (Dick) construction company. Together we built this home in '58-'59. Dot Beckwith's husband (John) was our real estate broker. We watched Cherry Point getting developed. ""We have had a good life and, as you know, I did finally make it to Hawaii - in fact many times. Together we enjoyed traveling - first with Ports of Call, then on our own. We fell in love with Hawaii and the South Pacific, and cruising became a great joy to us, and our experiences were invaluable. Don died in Jan 1997, but I am still here, getting old and crotchety. I was delighted when my cousin Wendy (Bunny's daughter) left her work on a Montana ranch and took off with her Stetson and spurs and galloped down to Denver to be my Sherpa, companion, nurse, and angel."" Please share your memories of Betty and condolences with her family by clicking on the guestbook link below.