Patrick Guion Clem

Patrick, 57, of Centennial, Colorado. Husband of Sue. Father of Daniel (Michelle) & Matt (Andrea). Memorial Service, Saturday, June 27, 2009, 10:00 am, Horan & McConaty Family Chapel, 5303 East County Line Road, Centennial, Colorado 80122 (one block to the west of Holly Street). Memorials to The ALS Association, Rocky Mountain Chapter, 1201 East Colfax Avenue, Suite 202, Denver, Colorado 80218, www.alsaco.org. Pat wanted the day of his memorial service to be a celebration of his life. I would like to share some things about Pat so you can add these items to your memories. He wanted lots of laughter and people talking together and sharing their stories about him. Pat was born on June 14, 1952 in Claremore, Oklahoma at Franklin Hospital, which was an Indian Hospital. He was the second son born to Lois Mae and Marion Eugene Clem. For the longest time, Pat thought that all the flags that were flown on June 14th were flown for his birthday! Pat's family moved to a farm in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma when he was five or six years old. Pat and his older brother, Mike, did chores every morning and evening. One of these chores was to milk cows by hand, which accounted for Pat's extremely firm handshake. He had to be very careful when shaking hands with many people so that he did not hurt them. Pat wrote a document of some of his childhood memories. I would like to share a few with you now. • When Pat was around six years old, Mike had just acquired a turtle, and Pat decided that he wanted a turtle, too! Pat went out to search for a turtle. Pat ran across a pet he wanted, but this pet was black and had two white stripes down its back. He thought it was pretty and tried to pick it up. When he picked it up, the skunk sprayed him. Going back home, his mom could smell him before she saw him. Pat's mom had to take all his clothes off and burn them and soak Pat in tomato juice and soup for many times to get the smell to go away. • The Clem family had a pig named Petunia, and when she was going to have a litter of pigs, she got out of the pen. Pat and Mike were to take a large laundry basket down to the forest area about a quarter of a mile away from the pen. Pat's dad was going to keep Petunia away from Mike and Pat. Now how Pat's dad thought he could hold an 850 pound momma pig back was beyond comprehension. So Mike and Pat started scooping up the baby pigs, and they started squealing. Now picture Pat and Mike running through the shoulder-high hay field with the laundry basket between them, the baby pigs squealing and the momma pig in hot pursuit, with their dad running behind. Their mom heard the commotion and tried to stop the pig, but the pig knocked her down. Pat and Mike threw the laundry basket in the pen and climbed a tree in the pen. The momma pig would not let Pat and Mike down or let Lois and Gene in the pen; so after dark, they rigged up a ladder to reach the tree, so the boys could climb across and reach the other side of the pen. • Pat got Ruby the pig for a 4-H project when Ruby was six weeks old. Pat worked with Ruby, and when it came time to show her, she won Grand Champion and they went to regional competition. After the competition, Pat's dad butchered her, and Pat could not eat her. In fact, he refused to have bacon, ham or pork chops for a year. • Pat's maternal grandmother and grandfather were a tremendous influence in his life, and he valued their opinions greatly. They provided a wealth of knowledge born from years of experience. Granddad barely graduated from the third grade, but that was always more than enough for him. That man lost two fortunes in oil and gas, and he was working on his third fortune with raising and selling cattle in Oklahoma; so you can imagine that Pat admired that self-made man. Whenever Pat was perplexed, he would take Pat to work in the fields, or go to the grocery store or go to Will Roger's Diner to get a coke, so the two of them could talk. Grandma was a strong influence on Pat as well. Her strength lay in her unconditional love and patience for pat and his brothers. • As soon as they would get to grandma and granddad's farm, Mike and Pat would rush into the kitchen calling out for ""Coffee, Grandma, Coffee!"" After a small time, Grandma would pour each of them a fourth cup of coffee and fill it up the rest of the way with milk and lots of sugar. Pat felt so big sitting with his coffee cup at the kitchen table with his mom and grandma. • At the farm, if it was Saturday and lunchtime, they were eating fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy, ears of corn, rolls, tea and Jell-O with fruit cocktail in it. How did Pat remember what they had all those years ago? Two reasons: 1) No one could fry chicken better than his grandma, and 2) It was Saturday. • In October 1959, Mike and Pat decided they wanted to go Christmas shopping with their own money. They finally figured out a way to get that money by picking up pecans. They picked up pecans for two weeks. They were successful and harvested almost two hundred pounds of pecans at 35 cents a pound, so they wound up with over sixty dollars. They sat down and put together a shopping list; a pipe for Dad, a blouse for Mom, Grandma a nice something and Granddad a pocket watch. Pat cannot remember how they got to town without prying eyes, but they did. They know what they were going to get everybody and how much everything would cost. Mike was great with things like that. The first thing was to get Mom's blouse, because that would cost the most. Mom would go into this boutique and window-shop. She seemed to like a blouse that was black and red and had large yellow and blue flowers all over. They thought it was perfect. Later, much later…actually almost ten years later…they found out that Mom thought the blouse was hideous; and looking back on it, and this is Pat's words…it was butt ugly. The fact that it was ugly did not make any difference to her. She wore that blouse every place they went and would tell the story of how she got it. Pat had polio when he was a child. Polio is a disease that is almost eradicated with vaccines, so many of you may not know what polio is. To quote the Mayo Clinic website, ""Polio is a contagious viral illness that in its most severe form causes paralysis, difficulty breathing and sometimes death."" First the doctors told the family that Pat was having growing pains. Then they realized it was something much more. Pat remembers his mom and dad wrapping his legs with hot, wet towels. One of his main methods of physical therapy was swimming, so Pat became a strong swimmer and very comfortable in the water. Pat was a science nerd! He was a total bookworm, by his own admission. In high school, he and several of his friends built a rocket ship. When they fired it, the rocket ship changed course and actually set fire to the science teacher's pants. Pat graduated from Afton, Oklahoma High School in May, 1970. He graduated from Northeastern Oklahoma A & M College with an Associate in Arts degree in May, 1972. In May, 1974, he graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelors of Science in Microbiology; and after a year of internship, he graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Medical Technology in May, 1975. He became a Registered Medical Technologist with the American Society of Clinical Pathology In 1976. He worked in a hospital laboratory for several years and then worked in medical equipment sales. The last year he was able to work, he returned to the laboratory. Pat was so excited to be back in microbiology. Pat and Sue were married on June 21, 1975. Sue taught high school in Afton, Oklahoma, the town that Pat's family lived in. Pat was away at college. The high school business teacher and Pat's mom, who was the high school secretary, decided that Pat and Sue should go to a football game together at the junior college close by that both Pat and Sue had attended. That was October of 1974. Well, since these two women decided this action, Pat and Sue thought that is was the only thing to do! We actually chose to go to a movie and have jalapeno pepper pizza at Pizza Hut afterwards. It must have been those peppers, because the rest was history! Daniel Guion (son) was born on June 8, 1977 and Mathew Levi (son) was born on November 11, 1980. Pat liked: John Wayne ~ Transformers Star Trek ~ Chili Cheese Dogs and Brats Star Trek Voyager ~ The TV show ""The Big Bang Theory"" Star Wars ~ The TV show ""NCIS"" X-men Pat hated: Onions! Please share your memories of Patrick and condolences with his family by selecting the ""sign guestbook"" button below.