Libby Freese

Aka:     Elizabeth Messer Allen Freese

            Liz Messer

Born in Detroit, Michigan on a beautiful October day (or so my parents told me).  My Dad went to war (World War II) when I was 8 months old.  My mother and I lived with my grandparents in Nevada, Missouri until I was about 4.  Mother and I were living on Lake Erie when my Dad came home from the war.  We moved to Cleveland, Ohio.  My mother and father divorced and I went to live with my aunt, uncle and cousin in Willits, California.  I lived there until the sixth grade and then we moved to Novato, California.

After graduation from high school I went to San Jose Hospital School of Nursing for one year.  Married and had my first child (Karen) at San Jose Hospital.  I ended up in the same room and same bed that my aunt had my cousin in. Went to San Jose State College and majored in art.  My husband graduated and got a job at Macy’s in San Francisco and we moved there. 

We lived in San Francisco for five years.  Son (Christopher) was born in Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco.  Loved living in San Francisco in the 60’s - never a dull moment.  We went to Seattle to visit relatives one Easter vacation.  It snowed and the kids were delighted.  My husband applied for a job with the Bon Marche in Seattle.

He got the job and we moved to North Seattle and I was 8 months pregnant at the time.  On July 30th Michelle was born.  It was one of the few hot summers that I can remember (I was miserable).  The next year we moved to Lynnwood, Washington into a brand new house.  Four years later I had Cherie, my husband lost his job, I was the only one working and we had to sell our house.  We moved to a small house on Olympic View Drive.  Our oldest daughter hated it (she didn’t have her own room).  She found us another house over by Meadowdale Elementary (she got her own bedroom).  Finally my husband got a job with Pacific Northwest Bell.  We bought an older home in Maplewood area. Karen went off to college (Stanford).  Now everyone had their own room.  Christopher didn’t really want to go to college so he went down to San Francisco and got a job as a grocery clerk for Safeway.  I turned his room into an office as I started my own bookkeeping service.

Karen graduated from college; Michelle graduated from Meadowdale High School and went to Cornell College. Karen got married in San Francisco and still lives there.  I divorced my husband.  Married Ralph. We lived in Gold Bar for a year and then moved to Puyallup to stay with his ailing mother.  When she died we moved back to our cabin in Gold Bar.  By this time my ex-husband was in default on the mortgage so we took over the house in Maplewood.  We sold the Maplewood house and bought the Seaview house that we still have. Michelle graduated from college. Cherie graduated from Edmonds High School and went off to college (Pepperdine).  Christopher came back to Washington and went to University of Washington where he graduated.   Cherie graduated and moved to San Francisco.  Michelle got married and works for Boeing.  Cherie got married and they moved to the LA area. 

Cherie finally moved back to the Seattle area and works for a marketing firm in Seattle.  I have 5 grandchildren (Karen in San Francisco has 3, Christopher in Shoreline has 1 and Michelle in Everett has 1) and Ralph has 7 (Tracy in Alabama has 4 and Todd in Olympia as 3).  I try to keep track of all of the birthdays and such. 

Ralph and I have traveled to Spain (2), Mexico (3), Costa Rica, England, Ireland, Hong Kong, Thailand and Australia(2).   I love to travel.  We have also gone to Alaska, Alabama, Hawaii, Ohio, Iowa, Arizona, California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Colorado and Oklahoma – do we ever stay home?  I went with my sister to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  Ralph hates the rain – so we go to sunny climates during the raining season.  We do spend time at our cabin in the mountains when it snows.  I love snowshoeing right out of the door of our cabin.

I am looking forward to retirement – in another five years or so.  I still do bookkeeping for a few clients (my main one is Ralph’s law firm).  I love photography and pastel painting