She went to grammar school through the seventh grade but times were tough in old Maine. At 15, she worked in the clothespin factory and married Paul Campbell at 18. After two daughters were born, divorce clouded her young life.

Vangie, never one to sit down, spent summers as a waitress in the Wentworth Hotel, N.H. dining room and winters in Sanford, ME, textile mills until the Depression hit Maine and the rest of the country. Back she went to housekeeping and anything else possible, just to keep her little family supported. During this tight time while working in Hartford, CT, she attended Adventist meetings and committed her life to her Best Friend. Back to Sanford, ME, she worked again in the Sanford mills. After much prying, she told us how tedious and long those days were-modern machinery had not yet been invented.

Life seemed to look easier in 1938 when she married Wendell Collier. Didn't work out and after a divorce in 1957, she worked as nurse's aid at Bixby Hospital in Long Beach, CA, and later at Hoag Memorial where she earned her LVN. She continued working until she retired at 65.

She moved to Redwood City, CA, where she helped baby-sit two granddaughters Alison and Susan for five years. Then on to Santa Rosa and a beautiful mobile home where we shared several Christmases. She moved to Auburn, CA, in 1988 and lived in a neat retirement home until it seemed best to move in with Helen in her commodious home. Time moved on and it became necessary to move into Auburn Gardens Nursing Home where she soon provided the happiest, cheeriest room in the Home. She was the pride of the nursing staff until she went to sleep on March 19, 2006 awaiting the Voice of her Best Friend.

All these years, she never stopped reading, studying, thinking. To discuss most anything with her, you would think she had a college education. She had the grand perspective of harnessing horses, watching men on the moon, and enjoying her bright red car until she volunteered to give up driving when she was 95. Not many today had her amazing memory and her almost incredible life experiences.

She never stopped using her hands. Either it was the Auburn Journal that she read up until the last few weeks of her life; or, her beloved Bible or The Desire of Ages or, books that her grandchildren would give her; or, making bets with most anyone in her large family; or watching the San Francisco Giants on TV. Knitting and crocheting was her hobby besides reading. Many of us have an Afghan that we will treasure for years go come.

How she loved her family-her daughters, her grandchildren and their children. She would forever ask about what each were doing. And she had a flypaper memory because if one of us slipped up on anything, she would remind us that we said that this child was doing this or that and what happened? And on the conversation would go. Amazing memory. Whatever happened to mine?
We will treasure the crocheted Christmas tree ornaments. We will treasure her wit and her appreciation for anything that anyone could do for her. She remembered with more detail than I can, every vacation we took together whether it was the cruises, or the weeks in Hawaii. All that made being with her so pleasant.

Those five years at the Auburn Gardens Nursing Home were remarkable. Her nurses loved her dearly. Some of them would drop by for Mother Collier to pray for them. Often! Her physician reported to friends in the community that he asked for her to pray for him when he was going through tough decisions. What a happy memory that will live on in many lives. We will miss her but not forget her!

Published in the Gold Country Media Newspapers on 3/29/2006.