Funeral Mass June 3, 2020, 10:30 a.m. MT at St. Mary's Church, Nenzel, Nebraska

Darlene Mecham Krajeski of Arvada, Colorado, age 92, died on Tuesday, November 19, 2019, just three short weeks after the death of her husband of 71 years, John Krajeski.

She was born in a railroad section house along the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad in Nebraska March 21, 1927 and was the second daughter of Addison Guy Mecham of Whitney, Nebraska, and Bertha Mae Nine of Kilgore. Guy and Bertha married Nov. 5, 1916 and had four children who survived into adulthood: Nadine Brooker, Darlene Krajeski, Maxine Rykken and Stephan Mecham. These family members worked to stay close, often writing updates to each other in the "Round Robin," a fat letter mailed semi-regularly with the hope that the news wasn't too old to still be relevant.

Darlene's transformation from small town girl teaching school in the Rosebud Indian Reservation to registered nurse and family nurse practitioner was solidly supported by John (Jack) Krajeski who had admired her since their days together at Kilgore High School. Together they moved through life backing and boosting each other. Gathering at her last bedside as she transitioned from Earth to Heaven, her family was united in their celebration of her life and belief that Jack was standing by, joyfully waiting to see her once again.

Life in those early days was made the more difficult by the Great Depression, severe

drought and damaging dust storms that cast a dusty gloom over farmlands and families.  When Darlene was 11, her mother Bertha scratched her arm crossing a barbed wire fence and died of infection a few short days later. The penicillin cure was just a few weeks away and already being tried, but not in time to save the mother of the Mecham children. Guy Mecham successfully raised three girls and his boy during those hard years.

Darlene Mecham graduated from Kilgore High School in 1944. She received a credential to teach school in the Rosebud Indian Reservation and taught for several years before moving to Lincoln where she worked in the Elgin Watch Factory. She became happily reacquainted with John after he was discharged from the Army in October 1946.  They married there in St. Elizabeth's Cathedral on April 3, 1948.  Together with her husband they bought and ran a weekly newspaper in Bancroft, Nebraska, and successfully ran it for several years before moving back to Lincoln and then to Grand Junction, Colorado, so Jack could be closer to his new business, Lincoln Exploration Company, which was formed to find oil and Uranium in the West.

After Jack became disabled with a severe muscle disease, Darlene was motivated to pursue a nursing degree by her desire to care for Jack and for others. She began that career by working the night shift at St. Mary's Hospital for 25 cents an hour. At the same time she earned her Associates' Degree in Nursing from Mesa College which conferred on her the status of Registered Nurse.  Thereafter, she received an additional certificate as a Family Nurse Practitioner, spending nearly 50 years as a selfless caregiver for her husband and others.

With all of her load, Darlene still had time with her husband to raise two girls—one of whom

became a doctor and one who pursued a marketing and communications career.

She made sure the girls took dance lessons, went to Catechism every Saturday morning,

finished their homework and joined Girl Scouts.

She loved to can the fresh fruits and vegetables in the valley of Grand Junction and would

make sure her girls shared in the peach picking, cherry pitting, green bean snapping and

jelly making. She planted tomato seeds in indoor containers each year to get a jump on

the season before she transplanted them out to the extensive garden she and Jack maintained

throughout the years. During the summer, she was never without a ripe tomato or

fresh rhubarb. Her flowers were always the talk of the neighborhood.

Darlene and Jack Krajeski were particularly proud of their two daughters, Dr. Roxann Krajeski Headley (Doug), a pediatrician, and Anita Krajeski Russell (Charlie), a marketing and communications executive, both of whom live in Denver.

She passed on her love of the holidays to her girls, including decorating for every occasion.

In later years, she became an expert in baking and decorating cakes. Her work was often praised, and she was asked by daughter Anita to make her wedding cake which she did, baking it and decorating it in Grand Junction and then driving it over the mountain pass to deliver it to Rolling Hills Country Club in Golden where the wedding and reception took place. The cake made it, but we will never know how!

In April 1996 the couple began building a house in Forest Springs in Arvada, Colorado

to be closer to children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. They lived in their

beautiful home on Westwoods Golf Course, enjoying the view from the deck they built

themselves until March 2019 when they moved into assisted living.

During her final moments on Earth, she asked who was with her in her room.

"Your entire family is here, Grammy," we replied.

It was then that she opened her eyes wide at a vision at the end of the bed that only she could see. We imagine she was escorted Home by a contingent of glorious angels.

Darlene is survived by daughters Roxann and Anita; granddaughters Jennifer Anderson and Ambryn Dahlstrom (Matt); and Carly Russell Priestley (James); great grandchildren Parker and Kellyn Anderson and Nathan and Ryan Dahlstrom.

Grammy, we love you, and by the grace of God, we will see you again!