Laurel Catherine Thomas

Thomas, Laurel Catherine
Age 73, passed away Wednesday, December 24, 2014. She was born December 19, 1941 to Evelynn and Charles Kimen in Cleveland, OH. Laurel is survived by her husband, Douglas; her son, Robert; her sister, Elizabeth Clark. A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, January 3, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. at Rio Rancho Presbyterian Church, 1004 24th St. SE, Rio Rancho, NM. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Laurel’s memory to the Alzheimer’s Association.

Laurel Kimen Thomas (as told by her husband, Douglas Thomas)

Laurel was a registered nurse, working for Presbyterian Hospital and Nurse Finders, primarily, as well as several private practices over the years. She was always proud of her nursing school, and wore the school cape for a number of years in colder weather.

We met in San Diego, where she had located after driving cross-country, just like Mary Tyler Moore in her red Mustang. But Laurel's was beige. She was working at the university hospital at La Jolla when we met at the Presbyterian Church downtown. I had attended services there years earlier and it was natural that I resume that attendance. I was a Marine on active duty and assigned to the base in San Diego. It started as a group dating thing, a bunch of us in the Young Adults group would go out on the town after evening gatherings at the church. Anyway, one thing led to another. We started dating as a couple, and one day at her apartment I just proposed. She accepted and we were engaged.

I had to go back to sea months later, but I had bought her several books about life as a military wife. She planned the wedding and I planned the honeymoon by mail from my second Vietnam tour. Upon my return to the states, I was again assigned to the base at San Diego.

Our wedding was at the church, with a lot of our families in attendance. Our honeymoon was at Waikiki and then the three-island tour. That was where she discovered that allergies were to plague her throughout our marriage, for I had booked the Garden Tour, knowing how she loved flowers.

We were very active in the San Diego Mustang Club, and she proved to be a great navigator. (She also had no patience when I ran out of gas a few times and from then on always bugged me to fill the tank.)

After our son, Robert, was born I was transferred north to Barstow. Typical of her personality, she was soon the President of the Staff NCO Wives Club, in spite of being a fairly new Marine wife. It was there Laurel started her years long relationship with Nurse Finders and specialized in senior care, in visiting nurse roles, or in local hospitals.

After I spent a year in Japan (Laurel and Robert stayed in Tucson to be near a friend) where I participated in the famous "Parrot's Beak" operation the President ordered, we lived in the Washington D.C. area and Laurel worked in a doctor’s office. It was there, in Woodbridge, VA that I began my 40-plus years as an Adult Scouter.

The next assignment was Iwakuni, Japan. Laurel did not do nursing there, but both of us were busy with the Cub Scouts. She learned Japanese and became an expert in a form of Japanese art which involves creating 3-dimensional pictures. She also became expert in the padded art which is very popular there. Do you remember the Cabbage Patch Dolls? She made one that was by far better looking than those in stores! We did a good amount of traveling as a family. She was active in the wives club and went on trips with them as well.

Back in the states after three years, we were stationed in Albany, GA.  Laurel started working for Nurse Finders there, primarily in senior patients' homes.

After my retirement, we moved to Albuquerque. She went to work for Presbyterian Hospital, and while there in the 80’s, was in the group to be first trained on computers. Another job change for me took us to New Jersey. Laurel went with Nurse Finders again and was amazed that computers had not come into use in the medical field in the east yet, this was in the mid-80s.

All our time on active duty we had been volunteers in the chapels on our bases and the local Presbyterian churches in the cities in which we lived. After moving to Albuquerque, we joined the national couples organization, Mariners, and became state leaders. We continued in various state offices, local and national, as we moved around.

We found a condo in Lakewood, NJ in Monmouth County and this time we were active as the co-leaders of the local Mariners group, called a ship. We were also very active in helping to manage the church's food bank, somewhat similar to what our current church has but on a smaller scale.

After several years, we decided to relocate to the Los Angeles area to help with the care of my mother who was developing Alzheimer's. We settled in Anaheim just up the street from the nursing home where mom was being cared for. It was a bad time for people in the government electronics manufacturing sector, so many companies had laid off and there was little hiring. I volunteered at the Orange County state employment office, helping other job seekers in their efforts, and for a time I worked at a local Ford agency as the Manager of Telemarketing. Laurel’s last job was at Anaheim General. Unfortunately, the first night on duty she suffered a severe case of diverticulitis and after subsequent surgery and recovery, she retired from nursing.

Four years later, after my mother passed away, we moved back to Albuquerque. We found the perfect property in the city of Rio Rancho and I returned to work for another nine years while still being active in Scouting.

Amazingly, the house we could afford was in Rio Rancho, and just down the street was the local Presbyterian Church, Rio Rancho Presbyterian, and the pastor was Rev. Kay Huggins, about whom we had known due to her writing which was used in classes in the Mariners organization where we were still officers.  

I again became very active in politics, having begun in New Jersey, and Laurel was a great help in my work with the county board of the Republican Party. She also supported me in my professional life, and together we volunteered with the Friends of the Library. Shortly before she was diagnosed, we had been honored to be the Couple of the Year in the Friends organization, but she had already started easing away from active work at the library.

Laurel has for many years been an officer in our local congregation’s Presbyterian Women, while I held similar offices in the Men’s Group. About a year before her difficulty became overwhelming she had been chosen to represent our church at the 3-year national gathering and I was representing Presbyterian Men as the National Membership Chair.

After years of diagnosis as depression, she was finally diagnosed with dementia. A misrouting of the spinal fluid was determined by a neurologist to be the cause of Laurel’s memory problems and she has been unable to participate in the many activities she so loved for all the years. About November 2012, she suffered a TIA (small stroke) which wiped out the few small interests she still had, and she basically became unable to function in any but the most-basic areas, such as get dressed and eat what I prepared. I placed her in a special facility for dementia/Alzheimer's patients, and she was basically doing well there, participating in the activities and trying to help the staff. I believe that she recognized the other clients as people like she used to care for in Geriatric Nursing, so she just naturally felt needed and useful. After several months, however, as her inability to control her bodily functions and other problems, I sought help and placed her in a wonderful using home, Sandia Springs, just a few miles from the house.

I came to be very grateful for the caring manner in which they watched over her, and took care of her needs. I came to call them my angels, for they are. Such wonderful and loving professionals.

She is now with the Lord, and no longer just a shell of the vital person she used to be.

"We will be together again someday, my love. It has been quite a journey we have been on."

Doug

Daniels Family Funeral Services
2400 Southern Blvd
Rio Rancho, NM 87124
505-891-9192