Wanda Cecile Shelly went to be with her Lord and Savior on Sunday, April 28, 2024. She was taken to Glory suddenly, at the age of 86, from her earthly home on Wiser Lake Road.
Wanda was born Feb. 9, 1938, at her childhood home on the farm next door to where she and her husband Jim raised their six children. Wanda lived all but the first couple years of her marriage on Wiser Lake Road.
Wanda’s parents, Carl and Ida Oltman, owned the farm that had been his parents’ farm. Wanda had a great time growing up with “all the animals” and loved being responsible for bringing the cows in at milking time (though they would have come in on their own) Wanda got 5 cents each day for this chore. Wanda also liked gathering eggs. She loved recalling how, when only 7 years of age, she drove a horse team to pull the hay wagon and hayfork. Later, when the salesman who sold Carl Oltman his tractor started to show him how it worked, Carl pointed to Wanda and said, “Talk to that one – she’ll be driving the tractor.”
Wanda attended the Lynden Public Schools and loved meeting up with her former class-mates once a month – the last time being this past April 16.
Wanda also enjoyed visiting with her former colleagues from Fisher Elementary School. She gave 34 years of dedicated service as playground supervisor and lunchroom attendant. Young adults she’d encounter would often greet her and recall her kindnesses to them as children. Wanda also enjoyed a brief period of time helping children with reading class.
She liked to say that kids were “her thing.” Mom loved to reminisce about helping children. She was an assistant Camp Fire leader as well as a Cub Scout leader.
Wanda was a very devout Christian – at a young age attending Sunday School at First Reformed church and later Ten Mile Chapel. She attended Lynden Community Church for the last fifty years of her life – many of those years spent teaching Sunday School. For several years, she played piano for Sunday School, on occasion she’d play for church service, and she had played for vespers at the Lynden Christian Rest home.
Wanda loved people and is remembered as a warm, caring person with a sweet smile and kind demeanor.
Wanda is survived by her six children, Gary (Mina) Shelly, Duane (LaVoun) Shelly, Connie (Steve) Regan, Carol Shelly, Keith (Jill) Shelly, and Larry (Tessie) Shelly. Wanda’s grand-children are Derek (Whitney) Regan, Katie (Brady) Miller, Kim (Ben) Curtis, Laura (Chris) Tharaldson, Tiffany (Justin)Sovey, Andrew Shelly, Isaac Shelly, Joseph (Elizabeth) Shelly, and Kristen Shelly. Great-grandchildren include Madison Miller, Macie Miller, Sadie Curtis, and Mila Sovey, and another great-granddaughter (Tharaldson) is on the way. Her dear sister, Myrna Visser, also survives Wanda.
Wanda was preceded in death by her husband Jim, whom she married on July 27, 1953. Also preceding Wanda in death are her parents, her brother Harold Oltman and his wife Alice, and brother-in-law Jim Visser.
There will be a celebration of life, opened to all of Wanda’s family and friends, on Saturday, June 1, 2024 at 2 p.m. at Lynden Community Church on Grover Street. Memorials may be made to the Lynden Community Church’s Mission Fund.
The Shelly family would like to extend a special thanks to the paramedics and first responders who have come out to help our dear mom over the years.
Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Gillies Funeral Home and Cremation Services.
