Evelyn Marie Federspiel died peacefully in the early morning hours of Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. The oldest of five children, with two brothers and two sisters, she was born to Xenophon and Cecilia Sheets on April 24, 1943.
While she took jobs working in agriculture and butchering, her true calling was working as a caregiver, and she did this most of her life.
She loved her lemon trees and her garden. She loved her windchimes and her chickens, and puttering around the yard on her electric scooter with her favorite hen perched on the handlebars.
She also loved watching her grown grandchildren commandeer those same scooters so they could race each other down the car port. She loved to be outside, most recently confiscating her daughter’s golf cart so she could ride around the property with her sister, laughing when the wind blew her hat off or a sharp turn would almost dump her out onto the street.
She had a taste for the grape, or, more accurately, rum, tequila, and champaign, and sometimes all three at once. She made her own Kahlua, her own cheese, and lord help you if you accidentally threw out her curdled milk because she was saving that for her ranch dressing.
She was crazy about repurposing things, specifically containers of any sort. So her loved ones had to be careful when grabbing a jar of mustard or a tub of ice cream, as there may be dish soap in one, or lard in the other.
She met the love of her life, Stan Federspiel, in 1995. After a time, she asked if she could bring a few things over to his house. He was more than surprised when he got home from work and realized she had moved all her things into his house.
Nope, you could never call her subtle. But it worked out, as they got married on June 10, 1995.
She loved her family, fiercely so. Her husband, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and siblings where all part of her circle, and she loved nothing more than having everyone over for dinner.
She loved to travel, whether it be far away or just a little road trip for a day. At one point, she and her sister, Suzy, met in Arizona, where they spent a week eating out of their ice chest as they drove either north or south, east, or west, choosing a random direction each morning. She often said afterward that it was the vacation of a lifetime.
Her favorite hobby was going ‘junk shopping.’ This meant visiting all the thrift shops in the area and, come summer, yard sales.
When her mobility became limited, she would instead ride in the passenger seat of the truck, looking out the window, pointing to some odd thing which her loved ones would then have to lift for her inspection. Sometimes she bought those odd things, then a few weeks later asked if any of us wanted it, because she was ‘cleaning things out.’
Oddly, she never seemed to run out of things to give away. Case in point: She liked to buy food in bulk, then share it with the family.
At one point she sent bags of rice home with everyone, not knowing they had been infiltrated by weevils. (Some members of her family are still dealing with that infestation.)
Regardless, she embraced life and lived it her own way. In the end, she waited until all her family could gather by her bedside before ‘moving on to her next and final adventure.’
She is survived by her loving husband, Stan; daughters Dawn (Mike) Pacheco, and Denise (Sergio) Sandate; grandchildren Anthony (Jessica) Roach, Dana-Leigh (Adam) Lederer, Austin (Miriah) Roach, Colby (Kal) Sandate, Taylor (Ian) Sandate, and Logan (Dani) Sandate; siblings Jim (Patrick) Sheets, Donald (Adele) Sheets, and Susan Byers; nephews Brent (Katelyn) Byers, and Donald Byers; great-grandchildren Clayton, Cannon, Cash, Julianna, Braxton, and baby Ryker; and a multitude of granddogs. She was preceded in death by her parents, and sister Mary Ellen Sheets.
An open house in her honor will be held from 12 to 3 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 19, at Denise’s house, 6829 County Road 19, Orland (first house to the left as you come into the gravel drive). For those who would like to attend, please bring your favorite memories and stories.
The Glenn County Observer 