Flora Elizabeth SHAFER

When her children were small she baked pies and sold them in Burts Department store to the clerks to raise extra money. She also invented the 'dry back bib' which she also sold. &nbsp Flo, along with her good friend, her children's gym teacher, Mary Crockett, started a Girl Scout troup in the town of Maine, NY. They were responsible for starting many troups and a daycamp. &nbsp Flo served as a Deacon in the Presbyterian Church. She helped many people. She wired two houses for people who could not afford an electrician. She started a craft group that met at our firestation. She started a 'Grandmothers' Club so her mother could meet other women her age. She knit, crochetd and sewed. To keep her fingers nimble when arthritus threatened to make them unusable she decided tomake afghans for each of her daughters, and all of her grandchildren. She managed to make at least ten before alzheimers claimed her mind. &nbsp To ameleoate the 'empty nest syndrome' on the first day of school she started a plant exchange for the mothers so afflicted. They brought slips, or plants they no longer wanted and took home a new plant to grow. &nbsp She started what she called 'Grand Camp. As her grandchildren reached the age of 5 they were allowed to go camping with Grandma Koon. She had nine grandchildren and seven of them were close enough inage to participate before she could no longer manage. Her daughter Joan is carrying on the tradition with her own nine grandchildren. &nbsp She fed the neighbors' dog, cats, wild racoons, and multitudes of birds. &nbsp When she was forty she started encasing their home with fieldstone. It took her ten years but she finished. &nbsp When fancy pockets on jeans were all the rage she made 18 pairs of jeans for her three youngest granddaughters. &nbsp Flo had Alzheimers induced by ITA's and small strokes over a period of fifteen years. She died quietly in her sleep with her husband and two daughters, Joan and Sue, nearby. &nbsp She was a remarkable woman.

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