In 1942, Mom (Judy) was born to Alvin and June Norell in the Salt Lake Valley, where she would live the rest of her life. She had adventurous dreams of becoming a designer and travelling. However, she also wanted children and made decisions that left her chasing three children rather than some of her other dreams.
She loved to keep our homes, wherever we lived, clean and attractive and taught us how to help and how to clean. When we all got our very own house in the summer of 1972, she worked hard inside and out to make our house a home. She raked out rocks, spread grass seed, and watered by hand preferentially. She loved to dig in the dirt and plant trees, flowers, bushes, and vegetables. Painting walls and kid furniture gave her joy. Mom loved rock 'n' roll and often danced around the kitchen. She sometimes made the car dance when we were out and about.
As she gradually became an empty nester she mothered several poodles over the years. Betsy, the most recent, was her best friend.
There were many hard and sad things in her life and the hardest was losing children. Jesse at 26 and JoLyn at 52. Both to cancer. Then she began to lose herself to dementia. Her old memories sometimes became current to her. She would forget some people at times. But other times she was more up-to-date and remembered events better. She never felt anything was wrong with her and did not want help in most cases. She didn’t always get the best care because she was very stubborn and thought she had just eaten or just done the laundry. To the very end, she wanted to be in charge and not take help. We figured out ways to help without her knowing and she would think she’d done it herself and was satisfied.
Mom left us on December 31st, 2024 with a big smile on her face very peacefully and without pain seeing “angels” in her room to guide her away to her next big adventure.
Living Family are husband: Jerry Donaldson, daughter: Jill Powell (David), sister: Trudy Webber, grandchildren: Adam Taylor (Hayley), Aaron D Powell, Lindsay Thompson (Matt), Glen Brixey, Joshua Powell (Charlotte), Kaden Powell, Benjamin Powell, 6 great-grandchildren and son-in-law: David Brixey.
Judy was preceded in death by her parents, son: Jesse J. Clements and daughter: JoLyn Brixey.
In lieu of flowers send donations to ASPCA or The Humane Society.
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