Everyone’s mother is special, and Frank Schipper’s very special mother will be remembered at Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care’s 11th Annual Mother’s Day Luncheon.
Themed “Honoring and Remembering Our Mothers,” the luncheon, which includes a silent auction, will be held from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, May 11 at the Coral Casino in Montecito, according to Tamara Skov, executive director of the Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care Foundation.
Annie Schipper died at age 101 in late 2011. Her husband died at age 89 in 1998. They had four children. Frank Schipper’s siblings include a brother in Oregon and two sisters in Idaho. The Schipper family emigrated from The Netherlands when Frank Schipper was 13 years old and settled in Santa Barbara.
“We were not allowed to speak a word of Dutch in the house, only English,” he said.
In her new homeland, Annie Schipper took her roles as homemaker and community member seriously. She served on the PTA, the League of Women Voters and several other civic organizations. She was used to hard work and had faced life and death challenges in The Netherlands.
During World War II, she and her husband hid a Jewish family from the Nazis in the root cellar of their home in The Netherlands. The mother of the family and Annie Schipper had grown up together. For her heroism, she has been recognized by the country of Israel, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara also plans to acknowledge her bravery.
Her legacy of hard work and caring for others is evident in Frank Schipper, the owner of Frank Schipper Construction Co. His company built the new Serenity House, VNHC’s inpatient hospice facility.
The Mother’s Day Luncheon is a bittersweet event. Remembering and celebrating Annie Schipper is a way to appreciate and understand the role of motherhood in everyday life. It also brings home how much she is missed.
For more information on “Honoring and Remembering Our Mothers,” click here or call 805.965.5555.
Nonprofit since 1908, Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care provides high quality, comprehensive home health, hospice and related services necessary to promote the health and well-being of all community residents, including those unable to pay. Serving all of Santa Barbara including Santa Ynez and Lompoc Valleys.
— Jennifer Goddard is a publicist representing Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care.