In Memory of Molly Elaine Rodway (née Fleetwood) 1942-2021

Molly was an accomplished pianist, a talented singer, and also played the flute. She sang in church choirs for as long as I can remember.

Church was a huge part of her life, and her faith was extremely strong. I was baptized Lutheran, but we also attended Presbyterian, Methodist, and non-Denominational churches over the years, as well as visiting the Grotto Mass on occasion.  She loved to sing, play piano, and decorate for church holidays and events, often staying up for hours sewing Advent or Easter banners or creating elaborate oversized floral arrangements for the chancel and sanctuary.  

Mom also was a bit of a health nut and cooked most of our meals from scratch, as well as baking and gardening beautiful vegetables, fruit, trees, and flowers. 

Molly loved all creatures great and small, and had many many animals over the years, all of them loved to the fullest. Our house growing up always had multiple cats and dogs, and sometimes other small animals like iguanas or guinea pigs. We loved them all.

Molly ran a day-care in her home in Portland, Oregon for 11 years, so her connection to the community was very strong, everyone in the neighborhood knew her and the kids, who she would take to Wilshire Park every day to play, rain or shine. She began teaching piano, and while honing her skills, gradually transitioned to teaching full time and discontinuing the day care. Piano teaching was what she loved the most, she was so grateful to her mother for investing in her lessons and training, and supported herself and paid the mortgage with this for the rest of her life, right up until she became ill. 

Molly spent time in Iowa, Illinois, and North Dakota in her childhood. Born June 5th, 1942 to Mary and Charles Fleetwood. Charles taught Inorganic Chemistry at Illinois State University and held 11 chemistry patents. Mary was a published historian and poet.

Molly married our father, John Jurgensen, around 1963, they divorced in 1979 and she re-married our loving step-dad, Rolland Rodway, bringing us two loving step-brothers and a second family that we are very close with. Molly and John remained good friends, even participating in family gatherings together with our step-family. She even hosted Dad's wedding in our backyard when he remarried his second wife in the late 1990s, and played flute for them while they walked down the isle. Our dad stayed in our lives and loved all of us dearly, until he passed of lung cancer in 2002. I think her ability to stay friends with her ex was extremely rare and valuable and shows the strength of her character and endurance of her love.

Molly was well-educated and a book nerd, she had all of the Great Books, she taught high school for adults at the community college in Newport before moving to Portland to do day-care, and taught me at home successfully for many years when she became disillusioned with our public school system, which prepared me well for college and graduate school.

Molly majored in Drama in college and always had a flare and brightness about her. She supported my ice skating career devotedly, sewing many beautiful costumes by hand for me. She loved performance and drama and dance and movies and music. She had great taste in art and was talented at crafts, we frequented Saturday Market for inspiration and to support local artists. Mom and I even had a brief face-painting career together in the late 80s/early '90s, after she befriended a professional clown. This helped open the door to my eventually going into a successful business for myself as a professional faery and hair sparkler (a kind of adornment similar to face painting, often done at festivals and other special events).

Molly had an incredibly generous and caretaking spirit. She helped raise ten thousand dollars for her friend's Donna's liver transplant in the 1980s by putting donation jars in all of the local businesses she frequented and posting flyers about her friend's need. Donna was able to get her transplant. Molly also helped many friends who were in financial trouble, paying them to do odd jobs or lending money whenever she could and never charging interest, and often forgiving part of all of the balance later. We were not well off and this was not easy for us, but she always felt moved to help others who struggled more than her. She volunteered and found ways to help people and animals, such as paying to trap and spay/neuter a local feral cat colony that she cared for and fed for their remaining years in the neighborhood. She loved animals and wildlife, delighted in the beauty of nature, and found magic in all seasons. She knew the names of all the plants and trees and most of the birds in our area.

Molly was especially talented at making holidays special for us. So many vivid traditions were gifted to us, such as always getting a live Christmas tree every year, and spoiling us with gifts from Santa, teaching me how to bake gingerbread cookies, making elaborate Halloween costumes for me and carving pumpkins, and organizing huge Easter Egg hunts and buying me beautiful Easter clothes for church. Even May Day and Valentine's Day and the Fourth of July were celebrated with great fanfare and no shortage of decorations, candy or fireworks, and always lots of friends. She hosted Thanksgiving for many years and made more beautiful food than you could imagine one person could cook for the big gatherings we had. She made holidays so, so special for us, and for everyone who wanted to participate.

She had a big laugh, sparkling big green eyes, a colorful, playful wardrobe, a huge, emotional heart, and worked harder than anyone I know, to care for the kids, the animals, the house, and her family. She loved coffee and dining out, but also loved cozy nights in by the fire or in the kitchen with TV or movies and lots of healthy snacks. Especially popcorn, cheese, and apples :)