A Life Celebrated

The daughter of Nina M. Keeler (b. June 26, 1892) and Washington V. Keeler (b. February 22, 1885), Monda Lee (Keeler) Rojas, beloved mom, grandma, great-grandma, and great-great-grandma passed away peacefully with her family by her side on January 16, 2021. After she passed, we shed tears and then told stories about mom that made us all laugh, a good laugh that helps take some of the sting away from her passing.

In a recently discovered high school paper titled “My Autobiography,” mom told the story of how her father and mother met when Grandma Keeler was working at the telephone office. Grandpa Keeler brought his favorite telephone operator boxes of candy, and they married a few months later on February 21, 1914. Grandma said all you need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt! In her paper that garnered an A- grade (that is probably why mom kept it), she shared how the Keeler family grew over time: 

“After a year my oldest sister was born, Fern. In a year and a half my sister Annabelle was born. She was born in Denver, Colo. as my folks were on a trip to see my uncles. In about 2 years and 6 months, my third sister was born. They named her Bobbette because they thought she would be a boy. After that there was a lapse of 9 years before my fourth sister Norma was born, we were then living in this district. Two years later I was born. The last of Washington Vernon Keeler’s children, stopping the mark at 5 children.”

Birthdates: Fern (April 18, 1915), Annabelle (December 5, 1916), Bobbette (May 24, 1919), Norma (March 5, 1930) and Monda (July 11, 1932). 

After graduating from high school, mom fell in love and married Abelardo “Larry” Joseph Rojas, and their first daughter Arlene Marie was born later that year on October 10, 1951. Exactly one year later, Jon Michael arrived on October 10, 1952 (and has had to share a birthday with Arlene ever since!), then Jenny Lee joined the family on August 21, 1958, and finally Anthony “Tony” Mark was born on May 29, 1963.  

Mom worked a number of jobs growing up, including picking delicious Washington strawberries. She took comptroller training after high school and worked in this role for a few companies, including a fun stint at Safeway. Before there was Amazon, there was the Sears catalog. After starting her family, mom worked as a packer in the catalog department of the downtown Sears store, where she assembled all the coveted goods (e.g., Toughskins jeans) from Sears Wish Book and seasonal catalogs. She held a similar role with the Bon Marché later and made a big change to working in the kitchen at Evergreen High School and Sylvester Middle School. She loved seeing the young faces and cooking for them, and she loved the wonderful staff that became some of her best friends.

The six of us lived in a one thousand square foot home that my parents were so proud was theirs. We grew up during simpler times, when the front door was always unlocked, and you would give a courtesy knock before you entered a neighbor’s house to visit. We have so many great memories from our adventures with the families on 4th Avenue Southwest in South Seattle.

Our parents loved music and dancing. Back in the 70’s, they were members of the Seattleites Square Dancing Club. Mom wore her square dance petticoat and dad wore matching colors. They were poetry in motion on the dance floor. At family weddings and parties over the years, they were often the first on and last off the dance floor. Now, they are dancing together in Heaven.

Dad played Santa later in life for friends and family, and Jenny played Rudolph, driving him around on Christmas Eve in her little red car. For kids that unexpectedly showed up at an event, mom and dad made sure to include extra gifts in Santa’s bag of toys. Mom was the perfect Mrs. Claus, she loved all holidays and Christmas the most! 

From raising funds to providing free telephone calls to wounded members of the armed forces in the 1940s, to working with Meals on Wheels with her girlfriends later in life, and countless volunteer activities in between, mom believed strongly in giving back to the community where you work and live. 

She had a lot of activities, interests and hobbies that centered around friends and family. She was a den mother for cub scouts, made ceramics with the ladies in our neighborhood (we still have a few pieces), loved gardening, helped her kids with fundraisers, and mom and dad were very involved with our church (St. Bernadette). When they were relaxing, dad loved movies and mom loved a good whodunnit or mystery movie, TV show or book. You never called and interrupted Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy; mom and dad were always calling out a letter or answering the questions. And you never called after 9:00 p.m., or it better be an emergency. 

She is survived by her daughter Arlene (Doyle), son Jon (Gail), daughter Jenny (John), son Tony (Leslie), and 9 grandchildren, 8 great-grandchildren, 4 great-great-grandchildren, and other members of the large Keeler and Rojas families.  

It is very difficult to condense such an extraordinary life into a few paragraphs. We have assembled some of our favorite photographs from the chapters of her life in this website to share with you.

Mom was the center of our family, with whom we shared all our life experiences. There is no one in our lives who will ever care as much about what we had to say as our mom. She will be greatly missed by all of us.

The messages of condolences, support and love for our family have been absolutely heartwarming. She will live on in our family stories and hearts forever.

Arlene, Jon, Jenny, and Tony