Virginia Wildman Pooler

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I’m sure my mom would want me to send you this update to her etiquette class as we roll into the holiday season. 😉 - Erin

Today marks 20 years without you here. 💔

Leave your favorite Pooler memories in the comments below. 👇

We’re on the eve of my mother’s 19th “Angel-versary,” and it’s a snow day in Colorado. ☃️ This calls for my mom’s favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! She used to make this recipe all the time, especially when she was procrastinating from grading papers! Enjoy!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Servings: 4 dozen +/-
Categories:
Source: Personal

Ingredients

• 1c shortening
• ¾ c sugar
• ¾ c brown sugar
• 1tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
•
• 1½ c flour
• 1½ c oatmeal
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1tsp salt
• 1½ c chocolate chips (I prefer semi-sweet)
• 1c chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

Cream together shortening, sugar, vanilla and eggs.

Then add all other ingredients.

Mix thoroughly and spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F for 8-10 minutes. (Recent attempt was 12 minutes.)

Keep cookie sheet away from burner/heating element to avoid burning the bottom of cookies. Pull from oven a bit early to ensure chewy cookies.

Sending birthday wishes and love up to heaven today. My angel mother would have been 70. 👼🏼

Thank you Philip Westerland (c/o 99) for this photo that he found.

Remembering my mom, on this 16th anniversary since the day she left us. How I wish I could hold my child today, and hug my father [I am currently deployed]. We've come so far since that day, and I know she has blessed us on our journey forward.

I love you mom, and miss you immensely. - EPC

Happy 67th birthday to my angel mother, Virginia Wildman Pooler. I pondered that number last night. Sixty-seven, wow! She probably would be retired by now, or at least I hope so. I think she'd be living nearby or at least flying here often. I remember conversations in her hospital bed where she pointed out children's toys on the TV. She very much wanted to be a grandma, and I know she would have loved Molly to bits.

How appropriate that today is the day Molly and I leave for Mexico, one of my mom's favorite destinations. As she was increasingly growing more ill, she always talked about getting back there. We scattered half of her ashes there.

I am so blessed to carry on her legacy and share her traditions with my own daughter. ❤👩‍👧- EPC

Regardless of your political affiliation or how you voted, it was great to read this about my mom today. ❤️ Thank you, Hope. Between this and another personal feel-good moment/feedback from a student, it's a great day to be a teacher.

"In the 4th grade, I met a feminist for the very first time in a classroom in the C-Building at Stowers Elementary School. She posited the exciting idea that women could achieve so much more than what we were previously restricted to achieve. From that first week of the school year, much to the dismay of my immigrant mom, I began to question the gender-based traditions and beliefs of not just American culture but of Japanese culture, and I really never looked back.

Today, I cast my ballot for the first major party female candidate for the highest office in the land keeping in mind all the sacrifices made by the suffragettes and their male allies, who fought for the women's right to vote, and I did so in honor of my 4th grade teacher, Virginia Wildman Pooler (who may or may not have been a Clinton supporter but certainly rocked a pantsuit). She didn't know it but in my little eight-year old pea brain, she started a revolution. "

Mom welcomed her own mother home today, at 91 years of age. I am thankful they are together, once more. ❤️ - EPC