Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Reflextions on the passing of Margaret Lust


Margaret Lust, my mother, passed away May 27, 2016 in Kent Washington. She was 93 years old and lived her life on her own terms. She was born in Yakima WA to Nellie and George W. McLaughlin and lived there or in Moxee WA. She worked in Yakima for her Uncle as a jeweler/watch repairman and other retail sales after graduating from Moxee H.S.. She married John Lust in Feb 1944 while he was in the army after which, they were stationed at Ft. Ord in CA where she worked for the arsenal rebuilding hand guns. She learned to rebuild all the hand guns used by the military up to and including the 50cal Thompson machine guns. She was required to test fire every gun she rebuilt. After the war she and dad moved back to Yakima and they began to raise their family. My brother John was born in Yakima in Jan 1945. In 1949-50 they moved to Ellensburg WA for a year and I was born there. Then back to Yakima until 1954 when a strike at Hanford forced dad to find work elsewhere. In a few days he found work in Bremerton WA and so it was we moved. Mother eventually went work, once I was in school and old enough to be a latch-key-kid, as a watch-repairman, then the head casher at Sears in Bremerton. After Sears she worked a Great Northwest Savings and Loan (which was not a Bank, inside joke) as a cashier in Bremerton. Mother and dad were avid boaters for years and members of BYC. She retired in the early 1980s. For most of her life she made many of her own clothes and she later became an accomplished crafter/artist making miniature dollhouse furnishings and egg art. She is survived by me her son (David Lust), my wife Paige and our children (Ethan and Katie and their spouses Nicole and Jon) and her three great-grandchildren. The following pictures are from her life in no particular order.

Margaret on the left with her bother Jack and sister Eunice with bother George
2015 when cousin Robie visited with her husband and son and all of us.
Wedding Day
Margaret and her brother Jack about 1934
She loved the sun, she and dad spent many summers boating. I had this photo in the top of my toolbox at work for years and every now and then some one would comment about who's that. Well the expression on their faces was priceless when I replied "Oh that's my mother"
I wish I could remember what was so funny!