Eloise E. Lund

Our dear Eloise Lund is gone. We hope she's flying among the stars, which always fascinated her. And just maybe she's learning "what comes next" in life's journey, always a curiosity for her.

An incredible woman who lived an incredible life that spanned a century, Eloise was born in Muskegon, Michigan, to truck farmer Otto and milliner Lena. Over her lifetime Eloise experienced stunning change from horse-drawn wagons to drones. A tomboy at heart, she had fond memories of playing with her brother and cousins, the black bloomers her mother insisted she wear peeping out from beneath her dress as she raced across fields, climbed trees, picked wild strawberries, chewed the tender sassafras, and smelled the sweet earth in her dad's greenhouse.

An idyllic childhood was marred by the deaths of one brother, two sisters, and her mother by the time Eloise was ten.

Graduating from high school at age sixteen, Eloise accepted her first teaching job at a one-room school in Muskegon and went on to be named Teacher of the Year in the Midland School System.

Never afraid of anything, Eloise swam alone across Mona Lake in Muskegon when she was ten and rode an elephant in Thailand when she was 85. As a young bride, she successfully careened down a mountain road when the brakes failed on her car, and cared for a baby in a tent in the mountains of Idaho where husband Harry was posted by the Forest Service.

Family and friends will continue to benefit from Eloise's love of the outdoors and the MICHIGAN WILDFLOWER books she and Harry produced.

In spite of breaking her hip while in her 90s, she continued to live alone, with loving support from friends and family, where her heart was in the house she built on her beloved river in the village of Leland.

Eloise lost Harry in 1998 and dear friend of fifteen years, Phil Pelky in 2015, brother Albert Eckerman in 2014 and sister Leona Vogt Burt in 2016. Survivors include daughter Pat Shaffer (Jim) of Hubbard Lake, MI; son David Lund (Sharon) of Traverse City, Michigan; grandchildren Heidi Shaffer, Joel Shaffer (Amy), Tony Lund (Tracey), Jon Lund (Kelli) and Chris Lund (Dawn);great grandchildren Raley (Shari), Ben (Eva), Curry, Cobe, Conner, Cameron, and Lauren Lund; Kailey, Reid, Ryan Shaffer, James Manning (Beth Ann); great great-grandchildren Halix and Bexlie Lund and Eloise and Violet Lund; special friends Judy Egeler and Jan (Pelky) Glassner, Sandy (Pelky)John, Ted and Don Pelky; dear Vogt and Eckerman nieces and nephews, and good neighbors, the David Verhougstraete family.

According to her wishes, Eloise was cremated and will be interred in the Leland Cemetery. Arrangements: Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home. At a later date family and friends will celebrate her life at favorite gathering spot of many years, Fischer's Happy Hour Tavern.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and memories with Eloise's family at www.reynolds-jonkhoff.com .

Eloise always turned her face toward the sun. In her memory, her family and friends will do the same.