Vera Metcalfe

Vera Lorene Metcalfe, Plainwell, age 95, passed away on December 13, 2014. Vera was born on October 8, 1919 in a small house in Fleming, Missouri to Ben and Eunice (David) Allen. She was the last surviving member of eight loving siblings. She was the mother of three children, Lewis Fletcher (Beth Simpson); Marcia Metcalfe (Don Goldstein); and Georgia Metcalfe (Bob Davidson), who passed away in 2007. Vera and her husband George, who died in 1997, were married for over 55 years. George and Vera came to the Kalamazoo area in 1948. They helped to build their own home in Comstock, where Vera lived until moving to an apartment in Plainwell in 2009. Vera will be remembered for her incredible resiliency and determination to make a good life for her family, which she did. Vera participated actively in her children's school as a volunteer and member of the school Board (Hoover School). In her "spare" time she served as a 4-H leader and enjoyed making clothes for herself and her daughters. Vera returned to the workforce in 1962 as a "cafeteria lady" at North Elementary School in Comstock, eventually becoming the Director of the Comstock Public Schools Food Service Program. She retired to spend more time traveling with her husband, later caring for him in his final years. She was a gifted cook and quilter, a jack and master of many trades, managing a drill or hammer as easily and skillfully as a pastry brush. Vera had a wonderful group of friends who helped and supported each other over 50 years of friendship, in good times and bad. She was incredibly proud of her children and her four grandchildren: Gwyn Hicks (Steve Hicks); Sean Fletcher (Isabel Reichert); Jessa Goldstein (Giacomo Balli), and Jonas Goldstein; she also took great joy in each of her three great-grandchildren. She also enjoyed a special bond with her niece Ellen Cleland, of Kansas City, Missouri. This summer many of the children of her siblings, their children and friends surrounded her in love and laughter in celebrating her 95 years of life. The family welcomes friends to a memorial service at 2:00 o'clock, Wednesday, December 17 at the Langeland Family Funeral Home, Comstock Michigan, where the family will greet friends for 1 hour prior to the service. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be directed to the Georgia Lee Metcalfe Scholarship Fund at Western Michigan University or to the Alzheimer's Association in Kalamazoo, Michigan.