Life Story

Mary was born July 25, 1936, to Wilma and JW Thompson, whom she always thought highly of. She was the youngest of 4 children and was often referred to by her siblings (especially her big sister Martha) as the most angelic child with golden ringlet hair.

As a young child, due to polio, she was paralyzed from the waist down. Mary, a mischievous little girl with paralysis and braces, would accidentally, on purpose, slip off the dock when her siblings were swimming. Her brother and sister would rescue her, only for her to do it again and again, because she loved being in the water. Her parents searched for treatment and found physical therapy, a new and innovative treatment for Polio. Mary’s parents worked with her religiously, exercising her legs several times a day. It was their only hope, and it worked. She was eventually walking and running again. 

In 1944, her parents got teaching jobs in Alaska and decided to make the big move up to the far north. Mary tells the story of riding the steamship to Alaska during the 2nd World War, all in the dark as the blackout curtains were used to keep the ship from being spotted by the Japanese. The family lived in the small town of Nenana. The house they lived in burned to the ground. There were no other houses to live in, so the Thompson family moved into the basement of the schoolhouse for the duration of the school year. Mary was sad about the fire but loved the “quick walk to school”-just up the stairs. 

Around age 10, her grandmother was sick, so the family headed home to Iowa. However, there was a problem, Mary broke her glasses. Amazon was not around at this time and the glasses, already en route to Alaska, had to be shipped back down to Iowa. She had to go for several months without her glasses. This might seem like a problem to most, but she loved it. She couldn’t see the front board in class, so she was allowed to sit in the back of the class and read books all day long. As an avid reader, she said that was the best school year ever. While back in Iowa, Mary discovered that the eggs didn’t quite taste the same as they did in Alaska. They lacked flavor! She realized the eggs in Alaska which were kept in storage all winter, were a little on the ripe side. The Thompson family again moved to Alaska for a few more years then back to Iowa for Mary’s Junior and Senior years of high school. Her parents said they were raising a wild child and needed to come back to the states for some stabilizing influence as they had been living a nomadic life in the last frontier. Mary would say she didn’t mind Iowa, and spending time with relatives there, but she did miss some of her freedom. 

She graduated from high school in Iowa and shared how her parents moved back to Alaska the day after she graduated. They loved Alaska and couldn’t wait to get back. Mary soon started school at Cornell College in Iowa but the draw to Alaska was too much. She talked about it a lot and so highly that her art teacher, Jim Evenson, decided he and his family would drive to Alaska to check it out. They invited Mary to drive to Alaska with them. They arrived in Kenai, and the Evenson’s loved Alaska so much, they ended up staying and homesteading on the Kenai. Mary stayed in Alaska and completed her teaching degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she eventually met her future husband, Jerald Eidem. 

Mary and Jerry married and lived in a small log cabin in Fairbanks that Jerry and his father Nick had built. This is where they brought home their first daughter, Jill. Mary and her little family soon started on their next adventure, moving to Nome where both Mary and Jerry taught. In Nome, baby Molly joined the family. When teaching jobs in Anchorage opened, they moved once again. And shortly after, their third daughter Greta completed the family. Greta would tease her mom, saying that she was the “straw that broke the camel's back” since after a lifetime of traveling, The family of five settled down in Anchorage. 

Mary was never short on adventure. One summer she and the family lived in South Naknek in a little one room tiny house. The refrigerator was the hole in the floor leading down to the permafrost. They had a wood stove, and the water was carried in buckets from the schoolhouse down the road. Mary, as usual, handled it all with grace and a sense of humor, even as the family all took turns bathing in a small wash tub with water heated up on the stove. 

She kept busy raising a family, teaching full-time, commercial fishing during her summers, gardening, and later doing her much loved pottery. Her daughters eventually grew up and blessed her with grandkids, Anton, Veronica, Arianna, and Mary Anneke. She loved being a grandmother. Veronica often referred to her as Doctor Grandma, as early on her mom always asked Mary for advice when Veronica was sick. 

Another granddaughter remembered how Mary was always present at all the grandkid’s events and would host the best grandkid sleep overs. She would send them outside to explore and climb trees and always gave the best back rubs. 

When Mary Anneke was young, she was scared to sleep alone anywhere but her mom Jill’s bed. When the grandkids had sleepovers at Grandma’s house everyone would sleep in the extra bedroom but Mary Anneke got to snuggle with Grandma. She remembers how they would snuggle and warm their cold feet up together. Even in adult years Mary would always make space for Mary Anneke to join her. And when Mary came to visit her granddaughter in more recent years, they would sleep in her granddaughter's bed together even though there were other rooms. Mary Anneke will always hold those snuggles close to her heart. In her last few years she couldn’t remember the name of Mary Anneke but Mary always remembered her. She would say “you are like me right” as in, they were both named Mary. 

When asked how the grandkids would describe her, they said sassy, independent, artistic, adventurous, courageous, practical, caring, a safe warm place to be, and always, always welcoming.

Age did not slow Mary down either. In her 70s, she was out hiking Boy Scout Rock and going on backcountry jeep tours in Arizona. 

Toward the end, when many faces had been forgotten due to Alzheimer’s, she could still recall her great-grandchildren. A bright smile, a sparkle in her eye; her face would light up with joy whenever she got to visit or Facetimed great grandbabies Quinn and Luca. 

Mary will be remembered for her adventurous spirit, her innovative ideas, her creative and artistic mind, her strength, her sense of humor, and most importantly for her caring and generous heart.

Mary will be interred at Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery on the Columbarium Wall in Niche 36.