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Letter to the editor

Her loves were family, learning and traveling

By Marty Clear Times Correspondent
Published October 19, 2007

She wrote frequently in her journal during her last months. After she passed away on Oct. 6, her husband, Martin Andersen, read what she had written.

"She kept writing, 'I hope Martin will be alright,' " he said. "Nothing about herself, even though she was dying. She was just thinking about me. That was the way she was."

Mrs. Andersen had been battling ovarian cancer for four years. But she was tired of the fight, her husband said, and that may have helped her accept death so peacefully. No doubt it also helped that she had lived an incredibly rich life in 65 years.

She was born in Germany, but moved with her family to Venezuela when she was 10. She learned Spanish and a bit of English there.

As a young woman, she studied business for about a year in Ontario, where she became fluent in English. She returned to South America and worked as an assistant to the general manager of Shell Oil in Venezuela.

But she had a passion for learning and wanted to get a college degree. By the early '70s, she was studying French at the University of Tampa.

Martin Andersen was also a UT student at the time, even though he was well into his 30s. He was in the Army and in poor health after being exposed to Agent Orange, so the Army let him take a year off.

He walked into the UT library one evening and saw a striking blond. "I saw her and said, 'Wow!' " Andersen recalled.

They married in 1973. Mrs. Andersen was 30 and had already lived on three continents, but she soon found her travels were just beginning.

Her husband's work in Special Forces took the family to homes around the United States and Central and South America. She always found a way to continue her studies, even while working and raising their daughter, who was born in Bolivia.

She studied Brazilian Portuguese at the Defense Language Institute in California and worked toward a master's degree at the University of Oklahoma extension in Bolivia.

She earned a master's in Spanish literature from Georgia State University and a master's in administration from Troy State University at MacDill Air Force Base.

"She loved to absorb knowledge," her husband said.

She worked as a counselor at several of the schools she attended, and after she and her family settled in the Brandon area, she worked as a counselor at the Spring, at Beth-El Mission in Wimauma and at First Presbyterian Church of Brandon.

Retirement didn't entirely suit her though. She missed the frequent relocations of Army life.

Her cancer was at stage four before it was discovered, and Mrs. Andersen fought it as long as she could. In June she told doctors she wanted to discontinue treatment and they agreed that was probably best.

Her pastor came to visit and commented that she had "an amazing grace." And after she died, her 3-year-old granddaughter - named Grace - looked at her body and said, "Grandma's dancing with the angels now."

Besides her husband and her granddaughter, Mrs. Andersen is survived by her daughter Kristina Evans and two sisters.

[Last modified October 18, 2007, 07:13:46]