(Tody) Bernadine F. Thompson
(Tody) Bernadine F. Thompson was born March 1926 in Chicago Illinois and passed away peacefully in her sleep at 3 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016 in Burlington Wash.
Her father Willard Tucker was born in Grandview Indiana on Nov. 28, 1878 and her mother Mamie Kirwan was born in Plain City Ohio on Feb. 27, 1884. Tody was the younger of 8 siblings. Her brothers and sisters were Willard, Edith, Bud, Don, Myra, Min, and Sis. Tody’s younger brother Warren is still living in Los Angeles.
Her father was an industrial Engineer and he was employed to set up companies and was often away. Her mother took care of her family at home. Bernadine was also called Tody which was a nick na me given her by her father.
About 1944 Tody met her husband Ernest F. Thompson. Ernest was and engineer in the Navy, he was commissioned as crew on a mine sweeper. Ernie met Tody when his ship was sent to long beach Naval Ship Yards to be ready for sea duty and the crew was allowed a night out for shore leave.
Ernie and Tody were married in Los Vegas in 1946 and they soon bought a home and started having a family close to Tody’s family in Los Angeles. Ernie worked for the City of Los Angeles maintaining and operating 2,000KW generators at night and was a contractor by day.
Tody worked for Hughes Aircraft soldering wiring harnesses for war planes. In the1950’s Tody and Ernie camped and toured California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, and Arizona.
Every few years they would come to Orcas Island to visit Ernie’s relatives in Deer Harbor where his family homesteaded in 1856. As a boy Ernie spent many years staying at his grandmother’s home in Deer Harbor, after his grandfather passed away. Ernie did the chores and helped his grandma.
In 1966 Ernie and Tody decided to move from Los Angeles and they became part owners of West Beach Resort until their partners Chet and Bobbie Hamer bought them out, and then Ernie and Tody moved to Deer Harbor. Ernie became again a contractor and partnered with Gordy and Dee Fox from 1967 to 1990s. Tody worked for the Kaisers until she became head cook at the institute Francile on Canoe Island.
By 1984 Ernie and Tody owned two houses and 90 acres of the Cayou homestead in Deer Harbor. By 1990 they sold their properties and moved to Mt. Vernon Washington to be close to a hospital. Ernie had been diagnosed with cancer. By 2003 the cancer had metastasized into Ernie’s bones and Ernie died of complications from cancer, leaving Tody to live on her own in a nice new home that they had built together where Tody lived until 2013.
By 2013 Tody was having problems remembering things, and she couldn’t manage on her own so she decided to move to an assisted care living facility called the Home Place in Burlington. Tody loved fishing for salmon with Ernie’s uncle Sherman. She canned food, pickled salmon and made Christmas fruit cakes, chutneys and pickles. She also liked to just have a fun family crab feed or beach comb for agates. Tody loved the island life with her husband Ernie. It is impossible to remember Tody without remembering Ernie. They were two lives meshed together so seamlessly. Sometimes it just seems like Tody and Ernie spent their whole lives getting away from the depression and having a good family, a warm home and good friends to work with.
Tody got to have her last rights as a Confirmed Catholic and will be interred at Woodlawn cemetery on West Beach Road with her husband next to Ernie’s grandmother.
She is survived by two sons; Thomas Thompson was born in 1947 and works as a driver for SPD trucking, and was recently awarded a 2 million mile safe driving award. Her youngest son John Thompson was born in 1953 and works as a residential builder in Bellingham working for Big Mountain Construction. Tody had three grand children, Troy, Ben, Bonnie, and five great-grand children.
