Florence Gail Simon

Florence Gail Simon

It is with great sadness that we share the passing of our dear mother, Florence Simon. At 102 years old, she was the beloved matriarch, the central heartbeat of our large extended family, and a constant light of love and acceptance in all our lives. It is difficult to encapsulate in a few short paragraphs her long legacy of loving service and dedication to her family, her students and teachers, her friends, her church, and her community. She touched many lives simply by doing what she loved and by being true to her ideals, and faith.

Florence Gail Walch was born to parents, Elizabeth and Arnold Walch, November 8th, 1923, in a farmhouse near Plainview, Minnesota. She was the second daughter of three girls. Her gregarious father did not really enjoy farming and so moved his young family to Plainview, where he became a successful car and truck salesman. He told his girls it was important to follow their dreams and was very supportive when my mom later chose to go to college. She also respected and looked up to her mother, who was quieter, even-tempered, hardworking, and thrifty during the Depression. But it was her care-giving skills and the constancy of her loving support that most impressed my mom, and she took these lessons to heart. She remembered a happy childhood, playing with her sisters, skating with friends in the winter, putting on plays in an old neighborhood barn, and listening to evening radio shows with her family. When her father came home, she also relished family discussions of local and world news at the dinner table, instilling a lifelong love of history and current affairs.

Mom attended Plainview high school and was the valedictorian of her class. She was a naturally curious and good student but also recognized at a young age the need for hard work and discipline to achieve in areas that didn’t come so easily to her. She wanted to be in the marching band and spent long hours practicing her clarinet. She also had a competitive spirit and thoroughly enjoyed learning many new sports and skills in her gym class. She needed spending money and so took on several part-time jobs, like babysitting, working at the bowling alley, and at the Lakeside Packing company. And yet she often found time to enjoy the movies, bowling, or going to dances with friends as well. Mom credited her own mother for teaching her to live a balanced life of moderation in all things.

Mom chose to attend Winona State Teacher’s College, to obtain a Secondary Teaching degree in History and Physical Education, and a minor in Math. It was in the college library that she met my dad, Curtis Simon. He was in one of her math classes and wanted to discuss how to solve one of their math problems, but also, really wanted to ask if she would like to go to the carnival with him. Sadly, their courtship would be interrupted by World War II, when my dad joined the Navy. Mom was a freshman in 1941 when it was abruptly announced on the radio that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor and that the US would be going to war. She remembered those college years as being rather somber after that, and very unlike a regular college experience with dances and sports activities. The classes were smaller and mostly women. However, she really enjoyed Glee Club, and singing in an octet that would tour the state and compete in tournaments. She and her girlfriends had more free time and they grew very close. They would often gather round the piano to sing, play bridge, or write to their boyfriends who were away at war. One summer her P.E. instructor invited mom and her friends to be camp counselors. She had so much fun canoeing and riding horseback with friends. She also realized how much she enjoyed planning lessons and teaching activities for the young campers. She was more convinced than ever that she would love being a teacher. Years later it was inspiring to see our mom write yearly “round robin” letters, maintaining those close connections with her college friends.

Mom taught at a school in Albert Lea for a year or so and then married my father. They had planned a wedding just after Christmas, but sadly her father died on Christmas day. At first, they thought they should cancel their wedding but then decided that they would have just a small family wedding. When “Ave Maria” was sung during this quiet ceremony, it brought great comfort to her. She also found great comfort over the years, with a sustained hope and trust in God. There would be days of great sorrow in her life, but just as many days of joy. She quietly trusted in God’s love and mercy, and the path that she would walk in life. And from her Catholic upbringing, she was inspired by the stories of Saints who had to deal with great obstacles and hardships but never wavered in doing good works.

Soon after their wedding, our dad took a job with the U.S. postal service. They first moved to a small apartment in Minneapolis, and then finally to a larger home in Richfield. Mom didn’t return to teaching for the next 15 years. It was at this time that she and my dad dedicated their lives to raising a family of seven children, five boys and two girls. Though mom appreciated her daughters, she often thought she was well suited to raising a bunch of boys. Her love of sports and physical activities served her and our brothers well. She and dad would pile us all up in the station wagon and head to the lakes in summer or sledding and skating in winter. She often played catch or baseball with us when our dad was gone for work, and the laundry and dishes could wait. She encouraged us all, with our unique talents, whether they were athletic, or artistic. Though individual time with Mom was scarce, each of us at some point in our lives found her to be patient and a great listener. Hers was a life of service and “good works”, and yet she also found time for herself and simple pleasures. She enjoyed gardening and arranging flowers, loved snuggling with a good book, she loved going to the movies, or swing dancing with my dad, and she regularly played bridge with her bridge club friends. She always strived for a balanced life. Her seemingly endless energy, her organizational skills, her ability to cook great quantities of food, and her ability to get us all bathed and into bed by 8:30 often with a story and prayers beforehand, was simply amazing. She had a stubborn, no-nonsense way about her, much like her hard-working German mother, but also the same caring heart that kept us all going as well as herself for over a century.
She wondered if she could still find energy to teach again as a busy mother of seven. But when the opportunity came to start again as a substitute teacher, she rose to the occasion. Later she took a job at Assumption, the Catholic school and church that all of us children had attended. She taught 7th and 8th grade math as well as classes in physical education. She even taught some of her own children. With her intelligence and drive, our mother could possibly have chosen a more lucrative profession, but she truly loved teaching her many students and always looked forward to each new school year. She often said she found so much joy in it she would have worked for free! In the last nine years of her career, she became the principal at Assumption. As a principal, Mom missed teaching, but she felt mentoring young teachers was just as important and rewarding as well. Her grandson, Nathan, attended Assumption at the time, and having his grandma as the principal only brought them closer together. He and his mom, our oldest sister Ann, continued to live with and care for Mom these past twenty-five years.

Mom retired at the age of seventy but unfortunately our dad was suffering from Alzheimer’s. She had hoped to do some world travelling with him in their retirement years, but life changed. She once again looked to the strength of her own mother as a role model, in how her mother had managed the care-giving tasks of several of their loved ones. Mom had been caring for Dad at home while she was still working until it became very difficult. When he finally went into a nursing home, she visited him daily to feed him lunch and spend time with him, until he passed some 9 years later.

At this same time, she continued to be the one constant in all our lives with weekly phone calls and occasional letters. Welcoming visiting relatives to her home, cooking birthday dinners, hosting Thanksgiving, and huge Christmas Eve gatherings, hosting Easter dinners, and 4rth of July picnics were beloved traditions. Later, our sister Ann and granddaughters would carry on the traditions for her, as she often looked forward to the holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas. She was famous for her Charles Dicken’s ceramic village, her beautifully decorated tree with ornaments from her family and students, and for her wild rice soup. Family meant everything to our mom. She welcomed 12 grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren into her fold, and into her heart. And though she didn’t get to travel the world much, she always said that her life was so enriched by all her grandchildren, and especially with several of them staying with her at various times. She also embraced her children’s’ Persian and Latino in-laws, along with their families, and cultural traditions. Mom always felt strongly about human injustices in our country and around the world, and often supported social justice causes. Having witnessed the very human struggles of the Depression, numerous wars, the civil rights, and women’s movement, the speed of technical advances, and the devastating current events since the pandemic, she has had quite an historic vantage point from which to view life. But although she continued to support various causes up to the end, the last few weeks of her life she spent saying goodbye to her loved ones and giving hugs to each and everyone in her small but beautiful corner of the world. It was more important to her that she shared the love in her heart with those nearest and dearest.

We are all so blessed to know and love you, Mom, until we meet again.

The Simon Family

Survived by children, Ann Anton, Joe Simon, Kurt (Joan) Simon, Gail Simon-Kian and Ben (Brenda Rathje) Simon; grandchildren, Rachel (Mike), Phillip (Suzy), Nathan, Susan (Derrick), Adam, Roxana, Samantha (Darrin), Johan (Caroline), Alex (Diana), Zach, Madalyn (Andy) and Cyrus; 16 great-grandchildren; and other loving family and friends.

Preceded in death by husband, Curtis Simon; sons, James Simon and Mathew Simon; parents, Arnold and Elizabeth Walch; and sisters, Betty Lee and Patricia Ashcroft.