Mom bred her close friend's Connemara pony to a New England Connemara stud resulting in a very pretty (and later quite a good jumper) Connemara pony we nicknamed "April" because she was born at our place in April of 1966. Mom trained her well and was very fond of her, repurchasing her to spend her last days where she was born.

The earlier picture is of Doris when she was at Sweet Briar College in 1941 on "Joe". She rode with her roommate and best friend for life Jessie Strahman through the beautiful countryside of VA.

Posted by her daughter, Wendy

From Pat Medina, Colts Neck Village

Iam very sorry for your loss. I want you to know that I miss your Mom very much .I used to tell her that she was my favored ,but not to tell anybody,she used to laugh real cute when I said that.I sat with your Mom for almost two hours on Monday night, because I was off on Tuesday.I wanted to make sure she had company.Like Joan I lost my son 10 month ago to cancer and I wanted to make sure your Mom felt save.She had to be great to have raised such a lovely and dedicated daughter as you .God bless ,you will always be in my thoughts

love,Patricia

Posted with permission from an email sent May 24, 2007

From the Activities Director at Colts Neck Village

Wendy, so sorry for your loss. When I first came to CNV, your Mom quickly became one of my favorite residents. She was full of energy and as inquisitive as a child under the circumstances. She really kept me on my toes and she was as honest with her questions as were her replies when she was questioned. I loved talking to her about her horses and truly enjoyed taking her out to see the horses in the area. Her face would light up any time she saw them.

I hope and pray that she finds that meadow in heaven and can ride her horses all day and night again with complete joy and happiness. She brought me much of that as well. I will forever be touched by her and remember her fondly. Much love and sympathy to all of your family and friends.

Sincerely,

Kerry Hudanish

From Bonnie Bohanon

Wendy, John, Bill and Keith,

It was an honor to attend the service for your Mom at the Mt. Bethel Meeting house, and when I returned, I e-mailed our sons to let them know of your Mom's passing. Our oldest son, Shawn,and his family had just passed by your old home on Mountain Avenue after our lunch on Mother's Day. They were touring the old familiar haunts they knew when we first moved to New Jersey, and Warren specifically. They commented that there did not seem to be horses there anymore. He was of course, sorry about your Mom's death, but glad to get the word, as were his brothers, Michael and Shane.

We only participated with members of your family for 7 short years before we moved back to MO; however, your household and Doris's love of horses and writing more than matched my own. She gave our older gelding a kind and loving place to while his hours; and she generously gave me encouragement, and an outlet for my rampant verbal, and writing skills. She was a fine and generous friend, and I miss her kind, patient soul here on Earth.



Posted by Bonnie Bohanon to Doris Mount at June 1, 2007 11:48 AM

From Mom's Best Friend's daughter

Dear Wendy, John, Keith, and Bill

She was one of my Mom's longest and best friends and she was a person that I admired since I was very young. I saw her as independent and capable and greatly appreciated her willness to spend time with a shy child fascinated by her wonderful animals and eccentric household. I miss her.
Debbi Strahman

May 29, 2007 7:23 AM

Mom's Passing

Mom passed away very peacefully in her sleep at 7 am this morning. She was outside with the wind in her hair on Monday at 3 pm and I had her out for an hour car ride (her request) last week. She thankfully did not linger.

On Friday at 2 pm we will have a service at the Mt Bethel Baptist Meeting House in Warren. Our paternal grandfather used to preach there. It is now a historical building listed on the National Register. They will open it up for us for her. Here is a picture of the building http://66.92.127.80/Mount%20Bethel%20Baptist.html

After the service we can walk across the street to Vincents where I have reserved the second floor for us where we can enjoy some snacks and drinks.

The following is her obituary which should be in the Star Ledger tomorrow. Everyone was very fond of her at Colts Neck Village.

DORIS OGDEN MOUNT

Photographer, Journalist and Equestrian, 88

Died May 23, 2007 at 7 am

Born in Summit, NJ on December 17, 1918 she graduated from Kent Place School, and Sweetbriar College in Virginia where she majored in English Literature and Horseback Riding. Early in her career she was the photographer in the PR Department of the General Motors Plant in Linden, NJ during World War II where she took pictures of the visiting dignitaries who came to boost morale. She married Wadsworth Walton Mount in 1945 and moved to Warren, NJ. She was a journalist, published in major magazines such as Highlights for Children and Chronicle of the Horse. She wrote a weekly horse column reporting on equine events for the Recorder Publications, owners of the Bernardsville News and Echoes-Sentinel. In 1987 she won the first prize in Juvenile Non-Fiction at the State of Maine’s Writers’ Conference. She was an accomplished rider and avid horsewoman, whose riding program taught many children and adults how to ride. She is survived by 4 children, John W. Mount, Sausalito, CA, William W. Mount, Keith A. Mount, Easton, PA, and Wendy E. Mount-Slocombe, Long Branch, NJ and 3 grandchildren, Brendon Renken, Lauren Mount, and Mason Mount. Relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend the service on Friday, May 25, 2007 at 2 pm.at the historic Mt. Bethel Baptist Meetinghouse, 147 Mt. Bethel Rd.,Warren Township, NJ. In lieu of flowers donations made be made to the Michael Curtain Scholarship Fund, Attn: Miss Roiter, Howell High school, 405 Squankum Yellowbrook Rd., Farmingdale, NJ 07727 (732) 919- 2131 ext. 8494 or ReRun, Inc., P.O. Box 113, Helmetta, NJ 08828 (215) 272-6716 located on the web at http://www.rerun.org/. To view or add comments about Doris Mount go to dorismount.blogspot.com

Stories about Doris

Dear Wendy,
What a nice idea to do this blog. It's so good to have the news and pictures, and to hear stories from others. One I remember my mother Bess telling about her older sister Doris is that every spring as they were growing up, the rugs would be taken up and cleaned. Without fail there would be spinach and other vegetables, flattened and all dried up, under the rug! Apparently, according to the custom of the era when there were no vitamin pills, children were forced to eat vegetables whether they liked them or not (not that things have completely changed!). Doris didn't like most of the vegetables, so apparently she was not excused from the table until she ate more and sometimes spent quite sometime by herself at the dinner table. From time to time, after everyone else left and when no one was looking, Doris would get the dog to eat the vegetables, or would slide them under the rug where they would be found the following spring!

Doris was so strong and healthy, that she obviously did not suffer from lack of vegetables! I appreciate her teaching me how to ride and inviting me over to their house when I was young, where there always seemed to be so much going on. In the first Mount house, I remember that after Wendy was born, Doris put a banner- like thing up in the kitchen with these words written on it: "Our House is Full of Boys and Noise- Now We Have One Pearl, a Girl!" Wendy, you have been a pearl of a girl in all the good care you have given Doris. We send you our love, Demie

Some of mom's second family

(published with permission)

Post by AJ Solomon - my friend and riding companion

Wendy,

Your mother could not have asked for a better daughter. I have only known you a short while but the love you have for her is evident. You are always thinking about her, or worrying about her, or visiting her. You make sure that she is well taken care of and that she gets to do fun things like visit the horses or go for a drive in Starship, go for ice cream. She brought many wonderful things to your life, one being the love of horses. What a wonderful gift for a mother and daughter to share! Now, each time you saddle up, she comes along, right there with you, in memory and spirit. This is something that you will always have long after she passes. It has been a hard journey for her lately. I wish her peace and happiness in her next life and a big, strong, handsome gelding......

Aj

Post by Peter Kurz

Hi Wendy,

I am enjoying the comments about Doris out here in Cairo. This is a good thing you have done.

I remember my Mom (Bessie, as Doris called her) telling us about the tramps and Gypsies too. Also about using linen napkins to snap butterballs up onto the ceiling! There was a story too she told about a turkey landing on the floor, and Grandma or someone saying, "I'll go get the other one" and then marching right back in with the first one dusted off! Another story Bessie used to tell was about being admonished not to mention the unusually long nose of a guest who was about to arrive for dinner. She got so nervous about this, that when he came through the door she said "Good evening Mr. Nose!"

Last year while visiting Bessie at Heath Village, she suddenly asked me "Where's mother?" I told her "Your mother died 35 years ago" (which the Heath Village care-givers told me I should not have said). But Bessie was astonished to hear this and didn't seem to mind at all. Sometimes she talks about having to pack her things and get ready to go home, and one time she said that apparently she was in prison and didn't know what she had done wrong! But the fact is, the people there are wonderful, as they seem to be at Doris's place, and almost 100 percent of the time Bessie seems to be very content. One day as we sat in the dining room, one of the residents walked in and Bessie called out hello to her. She said to me, "She's such a nice lady."

It would be great if the two sisters could get together, but I wonder whether they would know each other! They might not recognize each other, but I am sure they would remember.

Just a word about Joan Curtain: I read the tributes to Michael on the fallen heroes memorial website and could see that he was a wonderful son. Just as we will not forget Joan's kindness to Doris, we will honor his memory and service to our country.

Regards to everyone, Peter Kurz

Joan Curtain mom's nurse and dear friend

Joan Curtain and mom hit it off immediately and became very good friends. Mom went to Joan's house to visit with her family while John and I were in AU. Right before this picture was taken (May 8, 2007 ) I was wheeling mom and Joan was walking beside her and mom looked up at her and said, "Your my friend" and took her hand.

Joan her family and friends suffered a very sad loss when their son Michael was killed in Iraq. Yet she never wavered on taking care of mom and the other residents, something I would find personally very hard to do.

I rely heavily on Joan and her voice of reason with mom throughout the years.

http://www.fallenheroesmemorial.com/oif/profiles/curtinmichaeledward.html
The above link quotes people who knew Michael.

Memories written by Mom recalling her childhood

I quote what she wrote verbatim,
My father and his friends played billiards
Walking on top of freight cars.
Cook feeding tramps.
Santa Claus "Oh that's grandpa"
Bess and me throwing snowballs or rocks at passing cars-policeman comes-mother says "Oh my children wouldn't do that" me "We only throw them at old cars"
Riding garbage man's horse.
Dining room in curved end of house-Thanksgiving dinner with many people (probably all relatives). Maid marched in from kitchen with a huge turkey on a platter. As she walked around the curved end of the room, planning to set the turkey down in front of my farther to carve, she slipped on the scatter rug and turkey rolled off platter and landed on the floor!
Memories/description of house
Huge kitchen and big pantry-narrow, twisting back stairs from upper maid 3rd floor rooms came into kitchen then doorway. Back door from kitchen opened into backyard-grassy + driveway w forsythia bushes we used to play in and hide from parents or nurse or each other.
Furnace steam heat-noisy
Cellar was a dirt floor-ceiling low. Coal bin outside entrance. Only crawl space under west end of house.
Bay window with cushion seat, in living room. Radiator underneath. We children used to sit there to play or watch the cars go by.
Rainy days hide and seek in huge attic.
Double heavy drapes between entrance hall and living room. Us kids use to hide in the drapes.
Spinach under rug.
Driving w family car thru Delaware Water Gap-long hilly approach. Cars pulled over on the shoulder to let their motors cool down. Ours got overheated too and we stopped too. (Date c. 1925) In that time cars were a popular novelty but no one had figured out how to keep motors cool-so they overheated.
Describe mother: Always a cigarette in her hand-lighted. As a toddler I learned to watch out for that lighted butte after getting burned a couple of times.
Homeless man in woods behind Summit house cooking something in a pot

Posted by David Saxton

FYI from Wendy-
David and I met in Nursery school and our families grew up about 1 mile apart on Mountain Ave. We used to play Shark in his swimming pool and his sister Anne and I shared horses (Connemaras) and rode together.

Wendy, Kieth, & John,

Your Mom looks beautiful in the picture. She sure is a strong, stupendous person. You have been so fortunate to have her, and her you.

I will keep you in my heart!

David Saxton

Posted by Patti Carle Anderson

Hi Wendy,
My thoughts are with you at this very difficult time. I too, have an aging mother, so I know how hard it is to let her go. We just need to hold dear all the great memories...Horses,riding lessons, 4-H club,The Fair, volunteer efforts, all the wonderful published articles your Mom wrote,etc. Through it all -growing up with 3 older brothers too - your Mom was always there for you. It's amazing how parents survived the "crazy high school years", Boys, bonfires etc. I am so happy that you are there for her to make the end of her life so comfortable and dignified and still let her call the shots. Please give your Mom a BIG HUG for me and thank her for sharing the "gift of horses" in my life.
Patricia Carle Anderson

FYI from Wendy-This is from our cousin Cynthia Mount. .

Nice picture of Doris.

Just wanted to share my last visit with Doris.

Last Thanksgiving '06, I visited with Wendy and John and we picked Doris up and brought her back to their home for a wonderful turkey dinner. Thank you John!

Anyway during dinner, suddenly Doris looked up and said, "Nice to see you Cynthia, Happy Thanksgiving." To which I replied, "Thank you Doris, nice to see you. Happy Thanksgiving!"

It was brief...but a thrilling moment! Brought back many memories of holiday dinners with cousins and family gatherings.

That heart-warming moment plus the memory of Doris in San Francisco for John's wedding, when at the hotel I helped her dress in a lovely peach lace gown she had brought for the occasion (she wasn't used to wearing such formal wear and needed reassurance) is the way I like to remember her.
She was absolutely stunning.

Thanks Wendy.

Peace to everyone.
Cynthia

Hi Wendy,

Thanks for this update about Aunt Doris. It's wonderful that you are spending so much time tending to her care and well-being. She clearly enjoys the time together.

I too think of Doris as strong and strong willed - She had to be to manage all those horses, some of whom were pretty strong-willed themselves! I remember her in the barn, energetic, healthy, always trim despite all that cooking and baking she did, and tan from being outside. Perhaps, as you say, she has decided it's time to move on. I am doing some reading about hospice, in preparation for fundraising I'll be doing for a local hospice, and your description aligns with some of what I've read about the transition people go through as they prepare to die. It's a mysterious process, and I'm glad there are people like those taking care of Doris who understand more about it than I do.

Hearing about your mother makes me think of mine. I talked to her today, and she sounded content, as she usually does. It's not clear how much she really understands about what I say, though it's clear she knows me. It's good your mom knows you too.

Martha

Posted by Olita Walsh

FYI-
My husband John's sister, Olita Walsh (who lives outside of Sydney,AU)has 3 older brothers just like I do. John has said many times that Doris is going just like his mom did. The following is from Olita about their mom. John got a real kick out of it. The original didn't post to the blog (I think you must create an accountt for it to show up on http://dorismount.blogspot.com/ so I copied it from my email. This is what she wrote;

Hi Wendy

I just posted a comment on your Mom's website. I'm not sure that it was accepted so following is what I said. It is a very emotionally wearing time and my heart is with you. If you want to talk about anything, I'm here.

"Yes, it does remind me of Mum. However, Mum had reached that point in her life where she did want to be looked after. After Dad died, she raised the 3 boys and me on her own with virtually no help. Later in life, for many years she worked in the stock room of a large retail store loading shelves and "pulling" stock from 7.30am to 3.30pm and as she had lied about her age (she said she was 10 years younger than she was) she did not retire until she was 75.
So, when she moved into a hostel situation, she was ready to be cared for. HOWEVER, she was always very strong headed, strong willed and everything had to be done HER way, and even though she wanted to be looked after, she retained an independence.

I had to move her from the hostel (where she was happy, but could only stay there a set length of time) to another retirement home where she was encouraged to do things for herself (she did NOT like this). When she decided she had had enough, she, too, stopped eating. The only thing I could get her to eat were strawberries and unless they were really, really top quality, she would spit them out and refuse to eat.

It is very difficult for the family who are the carers. I felt that I couldn't seem to hit the right note to give Mum the will to live and I didn't want to let her go. Yet we must do just that. My Mum was tired and it was time for her to think of herself instead of others.

Take heart, Wendy, you are doing a great job."



Lots of love

Olita

Doris Mount May 8, 2007

Dear Family and Friends

I spent some time yesterday afternoon with mom outside. She always liked the heat. Even the humidity of NJ summers agreed with her. Yesterday it was sunny and 80 degrees so she loved it.

She wanted me to wheel her around which I did. Every time I stopped to rest she wanted another "ride". I on the other hand had not dressed for the weather and worked up quite a sweat! But every time I put the brakes on the wheelchair she would try to rock backwards so off we went again!

Both of my parents were strong willed for sure. I always admired them now so more than ever. Mom is dictating her time here on earth in a very real way. She has stopped eating. She can eat, she has no trouble swallowing fluids or food. But she won't.

At first she just had a decrease in appetite probably around January of this year. But even so she would love soft chocolate pieces and peppermints (the same kind that Johnny Legit loves). Yesterday I handed her a soft piece of chocolate and she spit it out and looked quite mad at me and said an emphatic "No!". It seems to me that she knows she could, if she continued to eat, live for a long time since she does not have major diseases that shorten life at this age. Her heart, lungs, kidneys, are ok. No diabetes, there really isn't anything that would get her. (This might be a drawback of living such a clean life.)

Early on she made it very clear and has in writing that she does not want any extended efforts to prolong her life. She is physically comfortable but probably really not happy with being so dependent now on others for her care. That was never her MO. The Colts Neck Village nurses and aides say that she doesn't like to be waited on. (Personally speaking I did not inherit that trait.) One commented that she was behaving in a very dignified way. Johnny Boy (husband) thinks her refusing to eat is instinctive since nothing else would kill her right now. I think it is a conscious decision. It's probably a little of both.

I'm going to try to attach some photos I took of her yesterday. She looks glum in one but she really isn't. She is still in her beautiful corner room which John picked out for her 5 years ago. It overlooks a big NJ field with lots of sunshine coming in through 2 windows. She loves that. She is in no pain or distress of any kind that I can see. This is much better than when she was falling a lot just a short time ago. The falling upset all the staff as she always walked on her own. The staff knowing how much she liked being outside would take her for walks weather permitting every day sometimes more than once. That was her Bingo.

I did get her to eat a peppermint yesterday using it as a bribe to drink a small amount of water.