Mary's Memoirs

The first person I contacted to view the Thelers' 16mm home movies was Vie Cokelet. Vie had been a school bus driver, and she and her husband also owned a small gasoline station on the canal so people could fill up their boats. Her husband worked in the Navy Yard.

She recognized Bill and Flossie Cady and their children. Mary had been a sponsor for Vie in getting into the Masons. She also shared that Mary was angry at Sam for quite some time and made Sam live in the apartment above the garage. I owned an ornamental iron company and Vie and I became friends when she had me make a divider for her patio with two metal wheels.

I loved visiting with her. She had a piggy bank collection that was incredible. One time when I visited her, she said she had got turned onto a really cool thing, which was to take yellow raisins, put them in a container and then cover them with vodka. Every morning, you were supposed to eat 15 raisins. I did what she said to do. Within 15 minutes, I had a buzz.

I told her that no wonder she felt so good after taking her 15 raisins soaked in vodka. We laughed. Vie passed away a month before my mother in April 2005. I missed her terribly. She made me laugh.

The Belfair Genealogy Chapter invited me to one of their meetings to show the 80 minutes of Theler home movies at the library. When I arrived, the large room where I was to show them was full of people, maybe 150. Through this showing, I got to meet several other people who knew the Thelers and were able to provide more information. I started receiving emails from people who knew Mary and Sam and they would share their stories and even some pictures.

■ Clydene Hostetler was a longtime Belfair resident and historian. She now resides on a classic wooden boat on the Columbia River. She has been researching Mary Theler's life for the past 20 years. She can be emailed at [email protected].