Mom was born in South River, N.J .January 18, 1921. She was the 2nd child of three. Althea being the oldest and Louise the youngest. She grew up in an area where everyone knew each other or were related. Those days were tough financially with the depression. Her father, William came down with blood poisoning and nearly died. They did many treatments at a costly price. They didn’t think he would live through it but he did. Mom also ended up with catching Diptheria and was bedridden for a year during her childhood. Her parents struggled making ends meet but gave them a wonderful childhood despite their setbacks.
Mom met and married dad, Walter Shultise in 1943. They were engaged right before his military training and she married before him before he left for the war. Mom spent all her time while he was gone making money for them to start their life when he returned. She worked at various companies, one making bullet casings and the other parachute flares. When he returned home, they started their life together in N.J.
After the war, our dad went to work for the family business of Insurance and real estate. Mom joined various organizations and womens clubs in the community.
Dad had business prospects in the D.C. Area, so they moved to Mclean Va. He worked for many years not quite making the salaries that he was accustomed to but eventually he landed a great job working with lawyers and land developers. Mom retired from her job at Hunter Lab and they were having a home built in Mount Vernon, Va. Two months later, dad died in his sleep. Mom was beside herself, because she now had all kinds of decisions to make. She got out of the house deal, took her old job back and moved to Centerville, V.A. She worked for many years after that until she retired to Hampton, Virginia. Paula was raising her family there and Pam was also living there, so she bought a house and moved down. Retired life wasn’t very exciting there so she went back to work at Hollomans Child Development Center. She worked there for a few years until an old friend from Hunter Lab moved to Daytona. She convinced mom to relocate and told her of all the things to do in Florida. Mom sold her house and moved to Daytona in 1992???? Mom got an apartment for seniors on the Halifax River adjacent to the beach. She made all new friends, did luncheons, took cruises and trips, played dominoes and bingo. Her life was complete and she was having a wonderful retirement.
While mom was living in Daytona she did a lot of writings about her life. We will let you read her writings of what she called “Nearing the end of the circle” that she wrote in 2004.
Nearing the End of the Circle
By Wilma Shultise – 2004
Next week, after Martin Luther King’s Birthday – On the 18th, I will be 84. I am feeling quite healthy and I still drive my car, despite the fact that twenty odd years ago, I had a Hemorrhage in my left eye and have gone on working and doing all the normal things with one eye that others do with sight in both eyes.
It was approximately eight years ago when I went through a cancer operation, where I had a mastectomy of the left side. Imagine, I am left handed and somehow everything that has happened to me, concerning my health has happened on the left side. I wonder if there is some significance in that. I was very fortunate in that instance, because the lymph glands which they took out from under my armpit were non-malignant and aside from a drain which seemed to be a nuisance, I healed very nicely. A grotesque scar, but that was minor compared to what could have been the consequences! It has since diminished, some.
The funniest part of this cancer problem came before the operation. I had no real time to consult people between the biopsy and the actual operation and so I was very ignorant about cancer. I thought since I am left handed, that I would not probably be able to use my left side to properly write and do things. So, I sat down and made out my checks in payment of my debts for at least 3 months in advance. I was really fortunate because a friend of mine’s daughter who was much younger had had a lumpectomy right before me and she loaned me Dr. Loves book, afterward and I then learned a little more about breast cancer. The checks were not wasted but the anxieties I had beforehand about the use of that left arm were for naught.
I was in the hospital overnight – and when the doctor said I could stay a second day, if I felt I wanted to, I decided that I would rather be at home. A visiting nurse came 3 times to show me how to remove the drain and empty the fluid, so that I could measure it and make note of it for the doctor.
My daughter Paula (the oldest who lived in Virginia) and her daughter – My youngest Granddaughter (Caren) who was approximately 18 then came down to see me. It was near Paulas’ Birthday, I suggested she drive close by and we would go out to dinner to celebrate.
My son, who was a bachelor and lived in Georgia, had been a mainstay – going with me to the doctors to learn the results of the biopsy and had been here with me, to lend support, he had a birthday a few days earlier. His birthday – the actual day of my operation. Four days later on his sisters birthday here I was ready to go out to dinner.
My youngest daughter Pam and friend Gwen had come down from Virginia and stayed throughout the biopsy operation, but had to return to work, my family were all a real support and all here for the operation.
It was Pam, the youngest who told me that I should join a support group. I didn’t think I would need it but 1o and behold, I finally did go to the Port Orange Hospital meeting and it was the best suggestion anyone could have given me. The girls I joined were about 15 in all (to begin with) all younger than I, but had gone through breast cancer of some kind – both lumpectomies and mastectomies, chemo or radiation. We were encouraged by a woman named Donna Hyatt to form a walking group and named ourselves the “Bosom Buddies.” We walked approximately a couple miles around the campus of Daytona Beach Community College, every Wednesday (weather permitting) and throughout the years we did 5K walks for a Daytona Art League, Melanoma, and the Susan B. Komen Foundation.
I came in first in several Art 5K’s in the 75 and over group – getting Art water colors around Daytona. We had many social gatherings and meetings monthly a breast cancer group and the comradeship and support by the group has been absolutely great. After 8 years we still keep in touch with get together.
In the year 2000, at the age of 80, I walked in the 5K Susan Komen ‘Walk For the Cure’ at the Daytona Race Track and was the oldest to enter and finish. I received a Plaque which was a glazed brick with the pink ribbon on it – made by the Ponce Inlet Woman’s Garden group a memorial to be placed in the garden.
For two years, thereafter a snapshot of another Bosom Buddy, Val Flynn and I, purring through the finish line was shown on T.V. (local channel 2) as my one and only claim to fame!
The Latter Part of the Circle
By Pam Shultise – 2017
Although mom wrote the piece called “Nearing the End Of The Circle”, her circle was larger than she thought. She lived 13 years past writing that story.
We were very proud of our mom with her determination to beat breast cancer. She didn’t do it alone. Her friends from the support group “The Bosom Buddies” were there for her right up to the end. They took her under their wing and spent a lot of time making her feel welcome. After she moved from Daytona to Ocala, they came out to visit her, sent her cards and gifts and always called her. My mother was so touched by how much they cared and always said “they make such a fuss about me”. In the later years when she moved back to Virginia with Paula, she would call and read me all the cards she got. She always wanted to look at all the pictures of each Christmas luncheon that she attended with them and also the ones she missed. Some people never know what impact they made in someone’s life but they were the best ever and we want to make sure they know that.