Ethel D Roberts

Birth date: Oct 29, 1924 Death date: Nov 21, 2017

Ethel Dorothy Roberts (Lang) passed peacefully November 21, 2017. A long-time resident of Clairemont, Ethel was preceded by her husband Leonard and survived by her daughters Shirley Wilson of Lakeside, Carol Sande of Menifee, Tere Read Obituary

Wall Obituary Events Media

Carol Sande

409w ago

Mommyâ??s Little Girlby Carol Sande (Oct 2009)One of my favorite memories is from when I was a very little girl. I was about 6 years old and we were living in Long Beach. On occasion, I had watched Mom put on a bit of makeup and I knew where she kept her rouge and lipstick in the upstairs bathroom. One day while everyone was busy elsewhere, I decided that I wanted to put on makeup. I applied the lipstick to my lips and the rouge to my cheeks, certain that I was going to be the most beautiful six year old in my mommyâ??s makeup.Suddenly, I heard Mom calling from the kitchenâ?¦â?Carol, what are you doing?â? â??Nothingâ?, I replied. â??Well come down here right now!â? Mom said.As I got off the stool, I knew I didnâ??t want to get in trouble for being in her makeup and all I could see was the red smears all over my hands. I grabbed the nearest towel and wiped my hands and wrists, secure in the knowledge that there was no possible way she could learn what I had been up to.To this day, I remember the look on her face as I clomped down the stairs and peered around the cut-out area of the wall saying, â??Yes Mom?…Here I amâ?. She was trying to be so stern yet there was laughter in her eyes as she looked upon my face which was covered completely in red rouge and lipstick!! ******There have been so many wonderful moments that I shared with Grandma over the years. She was an inspiration to me when she went back for her high school diploma and graduated in 1969, the year I graduated from Madison. Years later, I went back to school and graduated from college in 2003, the same year that Cath and Guin graduated from UC Davis and UCLA.Over the years, she has been there at my side for so many events… the dinner announcing that I made Drill Team captain in 1968, shopping for the pattern and material and making my wedding gown in 1972, Catherineâ??s birth in 1981, generously offering her home to the girls and I in the mid 1980â??s, the ladies trip to England in 1993, and so much more!Thank you for sharing our happy moments and events throughout the years and Happy Birthday Mom!!With Love, Carol

Richard Roberts

409w ago

by Terri Roberts (October 2009)One of my best memories is when we, Rich and I, were first dating and I would all the time want to be over at Bert Court. Mom and I would sit at the kitchen table having coffee and just having tons of girl talk. We just seemed to connect and had fun talking about family, life, and of course RICHARD. When life got busier and we didnâ??t have as much time to spend chatting, she called me one day and asked me if I was mad at her because she missed our â??kitchen datesâ??. I thought that was the sweetest.Another memory is when during the hot dating days, Rich and I were in the back room smooching. We were admiring the velvet patchwork quilt I had just bought him for his ever so lovely waterbed. Suddenly we heard the sliding wall door open, then close again-quickly and quietly. There we were, thinking Oh oh. But she never mentioned a thing about it, like it never happened. Geez, now thatâ??s a nice mom!Of course, thereâ??s those time when we played Hide-and-go-Seek and the Newlywed Game on Saturdays, loafing around all morning until past noon. Mom would be snickering in the background and was just good enough to let us do it.The best memories I like to think about are when Mom would get her dancing groove on and dance all around the living room to the oldies. Ha Good Times!Happy 85th Birthday Mom,We love you. Terri

Carol Sande

410w ago

For Ethel's Family and Friends:The service will be at Clairemont Mortuary, 4266 Mt Abernathy Ave, San Diego, 92117 on Saturday December 30, 2017. Viewing is at 10:00am with the service at 11:00am, which will be followed by a light reception.Graveside service and burial will be at Greenwood Memorial Park 4300 Imperial Ave San Diego 92113.

Diana Martini

410w ago

Ethel RobertsBy Diana Martini (Oct. 2009)My two memories of â??Mom momentsâ? are on both ends of the spectrum of what makes her who she is. I vividly remember her diligently working the lunch tables at Field Elementary as the observant and in-control yard duty attempting to keep order amid the chaos that is a group of youth enjoying a break from their pursuit of a primary education. Most of her time was spent in â??thin lipsâ?? mode, as she attempted to maintain composure amongst the young scamps bent on completing their repast in order to expedite getting to the playground, for 10-15 minutes of well-deserved reverie. Over the years that she worked there, I recall many times where my classmates would query me on the depth of her strict nature at homeâ?¦ I would merely shrug my shoulders indicating that it was probably most prudent to surrender rather than fight itâ?¦ because it was hard not to admit that Momâ??s approach seemed to work 99.9% of the time.***My other memory was when Mom was trying to support me in my quest to meet quota on collecting aluminum cans for a school ecology project. Iâ??d scoured the school yard, recreation center, and my way to/from home collecting every can I could find, but was coming up short on my numbers. So we headed out one Saturday afternoon in Momâ??s Chevy and she drove me down to Mission Bay near Sea World with the intent of driving me along and stopping for me to gather cans that had been idly tossed onto the side of the road. Weâ??d only stopped one or two times when I spied a likely treasure trove of cans off of Sea World Drive and Mom pulled off and rolled to a stop. I hopped out of the car, picked up a few paltry cans I could find (so not a treasure trove after all), then jumped into the car so we could proceed to our next collection destination. As Mom put the car into gear and attempted to leave she got a funny look on her face. I was soon to find out that we were significantly stuck in the sandâ?¦we observed the situation and Momâ??s attitude and tone became more troubled with the prospect of having to arrange for a tow and let Dad know of her roadside judgement error. But then the angels appearedâ?¦well, they werenâ??t angels really, not Hells Angels either, but a motley looking troupe of about five bikers rolled up and asked if they could help us out. Mom eagerly took them up on assisting us with the task, but had a moment of heart wrenching concern when she realized as she stood outside and behind the car that those who were pushing the car out of the sand trap did not include the burly, unshaven cyclist seated in the driverâ??s seat- with her young daughter quietly seated next to him, and Mom thought in â??hindsight being 20/20â? horror for a second, of the remote possibility that he could have easily driven off with the car and child inside, never to be seen againâ?¦what would Leonard think? However, fortuitously this did not happen, and once the car was released from its sandy bondage, Mom quickly thanked the group for their help, regained control of the Chevy and we took off with our quest for cans that day at an end as Mom was fairly certain weâ??d used up our luck for that day.Love, Diana

Richard Roberts

411w ago

Grandma Ethel Memories Shared with love by Shirley and Sean Wilson (Oct 2009) â??Grandma â?? 0, Sean â?? 1â?When Sean was around 12 years old, being a very active boy, he injured his knee in karate and had to have surgery to repair the knee. The doctor instructed the family that Sean needed to stay on the couch the day after the surgery with his leg up above his heart and iced periodically. Shirley had to work that day and arranged with Grandma Ethel for her to come out to Lakeside and take care of the patient for that day, reasoning that no one could get anything past her mother and Sean would be well supervised.Around lunchtime Shirley called to check on how Sean was doing, Grandma Ethel reported he was doing so well that she allowed him to go outside to watch the neighbor use a tractor in his yard. Okay, Shirley thought, that would be the highlight of Seanâ??s day and Grandma Ethel wouldnâ??t allow any monkey business.Imagine Shirleyâ??s surprise when she came home from work and heard an exasperated Grandmother telling the story of how she went out to check on her grandson and found him hanging onto the back of the tractor as the neighbor maneuvered it around his yard. Naturally, Sean was excited and could seen reason for concern, his leg was fine! We believe that was the last time that Grandma came out to â??take careâ? of any of the Wilson Boys.

Tyler Roberts

411w ago

Grandma Ethel Memories By Tyler Roberts(continued)I remember Grandma sharing her Pearl Harbor book with me, letting me borrow it (when I was probably in 6th grade or something and never gave it back). Maybe I should have, but I find it sort of ironic that I live on the same island as Pearl Harbor (where Grandpa was stationed during the attack) and Oahu has been my home for the last 12 years. That is just more than a third of my life and I have been alive for just more than a 1/3rd of hers. Time on this Earth is truly a blessing and a gift, so glad we make the most of every day of it. I love you Grandma Ethel and I hope I make you proud.Random memories:She had the brightest orange hair, freckles and a familiar smell when I hugged her.She would wear a pendant.Big yard.Table tennis in the garage.The Tanabes living down the street.Tossing the football in the cul-de-sac.Garage had a lot of tools, speakers in garage.Running around the house on the grass.Occasional stops at Troyâ??s, think I took her there one time.Seeing Austin Powers in the Clairemont Theater.Dinners at Chilis.Looking through the cut out she had above the sink leading to the living room.

Tyler Roberts

411w ago

Grandma Ethel Memories By Tyler RobertsI have many fond memories of my Grandma, Ethel Roberts. Many of them involve a horde of her grandchildren being chased around the inside and outside of her house by myself during family occasions. She would scold us young â??whippersnappersâ?? for running through the halls and was always relatively quick to discipline us. However, most times she let me slide with a reduced sentence or somewhat of a warning. I presume, she saw quite a bit of her son, Richard and maybe even her late husband, Leonard in me so I rarely got reprimanded to the extent of the other grandkidsâ?¦ sorry guys but good looks go a long way!!I remember helping her garden in her thick bank of ice-plant in the backyard, then coming inside for a nice refreshing cup of juice. The iceplant in her backyard dwarfed the iceplant in ours and made a nice home for alligator lizards- which I would chase regularly. Also, the flowers were not as plentiful as ours, so the bumble bees were considerably less abundant.I remember when all the family was together at aunt Dianaâ??s once and we took a big family picture with everybody in a matching shirt. I believe the shirts were blue and bore a family crest or coat of arms of sorts. That was the last time that I can remember that the whole family was all together. I remember giving her big hugs when we would have Christmas at Aunt Carols house. I enjoyed catching her taking great pleasure in watching us open our presents. Catherine would get horse dolls and I would get tractors and Noel would get X-MEN. I think she liked the puzzles the best though, and preferably those with at least 1000 pieces. I seemed to always get in trouble from Steve, though.She always had a spoon collection and lucky for her they were mounted high enough to be out of my reach as a young child! In my more formative years, I recall looking more closely at the souvenir spoons and even more closely at the display rack itself. I pondered the difficulty in trying to replicate such a detailed wood piece- capable of housing so many delicate spoons. Sometimes I wonder where the spoons are nowâ?¦ I know the dining room table is currently being used as a computer table in a room at my parentâ??s house. I remember wanting to bang my head on it while doing homework on it, as a high-schooler. Across from the table was her microwave. By the table was a door. I would always run out the back door into the backyard through that exit door. Also, she always drove the littlest cars and she was a huge fan of the Toyota Tercel !! When I rode in the car I would always be mesmerized by the automatic seatbelts it hadâ?¦As I write this I must admit that some of my first memories ever were in that house and thus are a bit fuzzy because we lived there for a while before my sister Leigh-Anne was born and while our house was being built in Scripps Ranch. I remember walking, or crawling, down the halls going toward the kitchen (with the bear-shaped cookie jar). Once we moved out we would still spend a good amount of time at the house for parties. I would also be there some days before I was able to go to school. Iâ??d watch Sesame Street in the back bedroom, a room that I would get to know well and I always thought it was cool because it had its own bathroom and the doors were slide style with latches. I thought these were cool because they were different than any other doors I had seen. I remember the closet smelling very unique and the yellow floral couch under the window back there. (if that couch could talkâ?¦) I watched a lot of the Disney movie â??The Jungle Bookâ?? which was probably my most watched vhs. My favorite scene was the Vultures which reminds me of the Beatles now!!

Leigh Roberts

411w ago

Gramma Ethel Memories by Leigh-Anne RobertsI have two very prominent childhood memories from my spending time at Grandma Ethelâ??s house. I remember spending hours helping with her 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles she had. I loved helping her organize the piecesâ??first separating them into piles of pieces: parts of the â??edge/borderâ? pile in one and an â??insideâ? pile. Weâ??d then diligently create smaller piles based on their colors and what part of the puzzle we thought they were from. My other memory was playing the Vegas slot game. It seems Iâ??d played hours on that slot game trying to get a jackpot (which I donâ??t think I ever did). As I got older and Grandma had moved out of the house on Bert Court, our new tradition would be to go to Black Angus for any family dinner gettogetherâ??no matter whose birthday it wasâ??to get a big slice of chocolate cake for dessert. Whenever we ordered our drinks, Grandma let the waiter know, with a huge grin across her face, that he better be saving her some chocolate cake if he knew what was good for him. Thatâ??s when I first saw how sassy (and hilarious) Grandma Ethel was and realized thatâ??s where I get it from!

Alice

411w ago

I worked with Ethel in the PTA at Field school. All of us had so much fun. We worked hard but always had time to laugh. I was so sorry to hear about her passing but knew she would probably look down on all of us and laugh. Alice

Tyler Roberts

411w ago

Tribute Wall

Tribute Wall