Helen McFarling

Helen McFarling, 97, died Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at Mitchell Village Care Center. Funeral services will be held at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 2, 2007 at Hamilton’s Mitchellville Funeral Home, 303 Center Ave. S. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service.
Helen Neola McFarling was born in Colfax, Iowa in 1910 to Nellie and Ed Cox. Helen was baptized at the Colfax Christian Church and graduated from Colfax High School in 1931.
Next to the youngest in a family of six children, Helen had a sister ten years her senior and a brother ten years younger. Doris, Lowell, Hazel, Wanda, Lloyd and Helen stayed close and “in touch” throughout their lives.
Helen married Francis McFarling from Mitchellville in 1937 and they had two daughters, Frances Kay and Helen Ann. The family moved to Des Moines in 1944. Helen worked hard most of her life with jobs at Younkers, Look Magazine and in her later years, Lutheran Hospital. Helen spent her final years at Mitchell Village Care Center and loved her life there. She described the food as “delicious,” the staff as “wonderful,” and her room as “great with a glass wall, so I can almost touch the birds in the feeder outside.” Helen was loving yet tough giving, but stubborn, witty and trusting – but not too – and she always prioritized family.
Helen’s life philosophy was “What little bread I have, I give and gladly pray tomorrow will give me more to give away.”
“My rememberer keeps forgetting that my forgetter doesn’t remember” was her way of explaining her faulty memory in later years. One thing we know is that we will never forget her.

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