Zelma Mayo Ingalls (1930-1998)

In Loving Memory of Zelma Mayo Ingalls, devoted Mother, Wife, Sister, Friend, Grandmother. Zelma Ingalls was a gentle soul who was brought to this earth to spread kindness and love to all she met. She had a very hard childhood, but still her sweet-natured ways helped her rise above being passed from family member to family member after her mother, Alice Mayo, passed away when she was but three years old. Her father, Murray, was so grief stricken of Alice’s passing, that he gave up custody of Zelma and her brother Ravon. They are all now in Heaven together as a family once again. When Zelma was in the 7th grade, a handsome young Leamon Ingalls, Jr came along and saw her get off the bus. That day, he went home and told his mother and father he saw the girl he was going to marry. He eventually went to war and Zelma ended up living with his mother, Claudia, while he was gone. He asked her to Marry him and in 1949 they tied the knot and lived together in love for just shy 50 years. Zelma was so loved by everyone she met. She had a sweet smile and gentleness about her that you could almost see the wings trying to appear from her shoulder blades. She never met anyone she didn’t like, but could sense people with bad intentions much faster than anyone else. She was intuitive and always knew who was calling and when my brother was in Vietnam, always knew how he was doing even when he didn’t write. She would always dream about him the night before she received a letter. Her half-brother was killed in Vietnam and is on the War Memorial in Washington, DC. She went to his funeral the same day my brother was being shipped to Vietnam. Zelma loved Leamon’s family like they were her own. His brothers and sister were like the family she had always dreamed of and Claudia (Mimmie as all of us grandkids called her) was like the Mother she never had. Zelma was a strong women with determined spirit and always had her head in the right place. She worked a man’s job as a punch press operator for 30 years and when she finally retired, was told it took three grown men to fill her spot. In 1996, she started getting sick. She was very insistent on having checkups and Gynocological exams. In fact, she had one 6 months prior to the bad news. In 1996 she and my Dad came to see me in Florida. I took her to Sanibel Island, Fl, a place she had always dreamed of going. My Dad told me she had been having problems and her stomach had been hurting. She went to a doctor who told her she probably broke a rib and took no exams or blood test. While she walked on the beach of Sanibel Island collecting sand dollars and shells, something she had loved to do for many years, she realized something was simply not right. She came to me and said, I’m really sick and need to go back home to North Carolina. The next morning, I had gone to work and my Dad took her early back to NC and the entire way watching her get sicker and keeping an eye on every Hospital Exit. It usually took 10 hours to drive from my house to their’s. On this trip, I believe he made it in 7 hours. He drove her directly to the hospital and they found fluid on her lungs and after running numerous tests for what seemed like forever, came back and said the horrible news. Zelma had stage 4 Ovarian Cancer and would possibly not make it to Christmas. She fought Ovarian Cancer with every ounce of energy she had. Leamon tended to her every second of every day and through his love and her family and friends and her own personal determination, she survived for two more years. Her compassion for those receiving treatment with her was they were always suffering more than she, in her opinion. Her high school friends (yes, High School) took turns in writing her letters every week. Zelma responded to every letter as she could. Always staying optimistic and angry at the lack of publicity this horrid Cancer received. Two weeks before her passing, Leamon and Zelma went to the mountains to celebrate July 4th with me. They both loved the mountains and the vacation gave them both a chance to get away from the constant hospitals and chemo. She was so peaceful that weekend, but I knew the end was near. The entire family came together once we realized how sick she was getting. Everyone came. It was the last time we spent as a family with this wonderful women we all loved. The following weekend, Claudia May Ingalls, Leamon’s mother, who was like a Mother to Zelma, passed away from a very long battle with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Before she passed, she told Zelma, “I will see you soon in Paradise, sweetheart, and you and I will go dancing in the streets of Heaven.” The following weekend, Leamon took Zelma to the Hospital where after 24 hours of the doctors working on her, she lost the battle with Ovarian Cancer, but won the battle of life and gently, after speaking to the ICU nurse all night of the wonderful life she had lived and the wonderful children and grandchildren she had, she had not one regret and simply breathed her last breath with a smile and slipped into Heaven, alone, just as she wanted, with no one making a fuss and no tears; alone and peaceful. I spoke with the ICU nurse shortly after her passing. She stated that in all her years, she had never met anyone person at such peace, content with their life and love and ready to go to the great beyond. Zelma never asked for anyone else to be there, sent Leamon home, and felt she left this earth exactly how she wanted… quietly and peacefully, with no fuss and no regrets.

God Bless Zelma Mayo Ingalls on the 10th Anniversary of her passing. May she be happy in paradise and may her Angel wings shine with all the glory in Heaven as they attempted to do here on Earth.

We are all blessed to have her as a Mother.