Hilda B. Albright

Hilda B. Albright LAYTON - Just before the dawn of a crisp, clear, Autumn day, on Friday, October 9, 2009, our beloved mother, wife, grandmother and friend, Hilda Berkenpas Albright, 93, slipped away to heaven after a brief illness, as peaceful an end to a full and rich mortal life as anyone could hope for. She was born in Ogden, Utah, May 17, 1916 to Annie Kapp and Harm Berkenpas, natives of Holland, the third of eight brothers and sisters, all of whom have passed on. She retained a lifelong, immutable bond with her siblings whom she loved and admired and on her last day told of missing her long departed sister. She was educated in Chicago, Illinois and Ogden schools and graduated from Ogden High. She was smart with a superb memory. She didn’t like fractions. At nineteen she married Lynn A. Berlin (later divorced) and had a daughter, Connie (Robert) Hazen of Bountiful, a daughter Lani Prout of Ogden and a son Steven (Jan) Berlin of Salt Lake. Lani died in 1995, the most painful tragedy of mother’s life. We can only imagine the joy of their reunion. Mother had an exceptionally close relationship with Lani’s wonderful daughter Becky (Ron) Wheelwright, now of Longmont, Colorado. In 1972 she married George (Ray) Albright. They resided in Layton until the time of her death. Together they traveled America, fished, boated and chased antiques. Born in Arkansas, Ray plays a mean violin and his work in Old Time Fiddlers kept them busy for years. Besides her own children, she is survived by her daughter by marriage MaryAnn (Joel) Campbell of Ogden; and sons Richard (Jodeane) Albright of Pocatello, Idaho; and David (Pat) Albright of Ft. Worth, Texas. She had 17 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren who know her as Gammy. Her posterity are scattered around the world at home, at work, at school and serving missions. Mother showered us with love. She often worked difficult jobs for little money but we children were never in need. She was frugal with herself but generous to a fault with others. Before she began to outlive them she had many dear friends. Mother was creative and artistic. For more than twenty years she worked as a commercial layout artist. She not only designed her own home, she made it a showpiece of tasteful objects d’art gathered far and wide from trips across country and her endless treks to scour the local DIs with Connie. Mother was exceptionally friendly and outgoing and she taught us children to talk to strangers as well. For example, many are the times we’ve pestered the person next to us in a supermarket checkout line to eventually discover we were distant relatives or had another unsuspected connection in life. Apart from her love and generosity, Mother’s most outstanding virtue was her extraordinary strength of will. Her self-discipline and stick-to-itiveness were legendary. When she cleaned she could polish the enamel off a refrigerator door and in her home, until we took over, you could eat off the floor. Her most common question of her children was, “What did you accomplish today?” As a youngster whose parents spoke English with a Dutch accent, she was an all-American girl. But as the years passed she became immensely proud of her Dutch heritage, eventually even visiting her grandmother’s charming canal-side village in Menaldum, Friesland, Netherlands when she was nearly eighty. From another chance meeting, she “adopted” and was adopted by the de Jong family there and thought of Rim as her son and Elsien as her daughter. They visited us many times in Utah and loved Gammy as their third mother as well. The family would like to deeply thank mother’s nurse Alice, her CNA Jessica, Dr. Nameer Qader and all the dedicated healthcare professionals at Applegate Home Care and Hospice, the doctors and nurses of McKay-Dee Hospital as well as the wonderful staff at Orchard Cove Rehabilitation Center in Bountiful, not only for their superb medical skills but their kindness and affection for our mother as she struggled to overcome the vicissitudes of old age. We equally acknowledge her devoted caregiver Gayle and her solicitous neighbors Carl and Helen for their years of uncounted kindnesses. Forever modest, mother did not want a funeral. Instead, we will celebrate her life at a graveside service on Tuesday, October 13, at 2 p.m. at Lindquist’s Washington Heights Memorial Park, 4500 Washington Blvd. in Ogden. Friends and family are invited to gather prior to the graveside services at Lindquist’s Ogden Mortuary, 3408 Washington Blvd., from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Condolences may be shared at www.lindquistmortuary.com