Obituary of Lois Irene Bowman

After an incredibly short six week battle with Pancreatic Cancer, Lois went very peacefully to Heaven at 9:45am on June 19, 2010. She was surrounded by her daughters, son in law and special friend Gwen, in the serene setting at the Franciscan Hospice House in University Place, WA. 65 years young, she is survived by her daughters Shannon (Rob) Durbin, Paige (Rob) Rhines; grandchildren Madison and Spencer Durbin, Penny and Piper Rhines; mother Irene Konsmo; brother Dan (Kathy) Konsmo, sister Pearl (Chuck) DeMaris, brother Ted (Cindy) Konsmo;, sister Teresa (Todd) Santee and preceded in death by father Arne Konsmo and sister Rose (Paul) DeMaris. Mom was the oldest of 6 siblings and grew up in Tacoma around a huge extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins. She spent several of her early years with her parents on the mission field in Africa. She attended Stadium High School and ITT Technical College. Her strong work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit started at a very young age. She was very dedicated and loyal to her employers over the years. Recently, as a resident apartment manager, she also had a large ‘family’ of tenants who loved and respected her. The most important things in her life were her faith, family, friends and working hard. Mom had incredible strength throughout her whole life even when challenges came her way. She always maintained a positive attitude and never complained – including her diagnosis and battle with terminal cancer. She was a beautiful person inside and out. While we are greatly saddened by our loss, we are so grateful that she is finally pain free and at complete peace in Heaven. We appreciate several visits from Pastor Dean and the Life Center visitation team that came to pray over Mom. We wish to thank the extremely compassionate teams of experts who took such good care of Mom: Dr. Laura Rogers, MultiCare Home Health team, Tacoma General Oncology and Radiation Oncology, Floor 6 at Tacoma General Hospital, University Place Care Center (Jeanne and 400 wing), Franciscan Hospice team, the Franciscan Hospice House and Edwards Memorial. We, Shannon and Paige, also extend a HUGE thank you to all of the family and friends who supported us through this short and intense time. We could not have done it without all of the prayer, help with caring for Mom at home, filling in during doctor appointments, childcare, visits, meals, grocery shopping, cleaning, errand running (however small), flowers, gifts, music, snacks, Cloverleaf pizza (Dad!) and all of the unconditional help that was given. A special thank you from Paige to my in-laws for selflessly parking your motor home in our driveway this entire time and allowing me this precious time to be with Mom. Thanks for taking care of absolutely everything; it has meant the world to me. A special thank you from Shannon to Toni, my job-share partner at Alaska Airlines, for taking on extra days to cover my schedule and allowing me to concentrate all of my time and attention on Mom. Your gift of time is invaluable and I will never be able to thank you enough. Memorial service to celebrate her life to be held 3pm, Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at Life Center, 1717 S. Union Ave, Tacoma, WA. Donations can be made to Life Center–Africa Missions.