Sandra Jene Michaelis

Sandra Jene Michaelis was a cherished mother to Kenneth Douglas Michaelis and Kendra D. De Geus. She also was a faithful and devoted daughter to her mother, Florence E. Hawkins.
Sandra married Kenneth Michaelis soon after she graduated from high school and was married to him for 18 years.
After Sandra and Kenny were divorced, Sandra had several jobs. She worked at the bank in the accounting department and for the school district as a teacher's aide, but what she enjoyed the most was working at the assessor's office as a draftsperson. She enjoyed the people she worked with there and worked there for many years. When her mom, Florence E. Hawkins, became ill with Alzheimer's disease, she retired from the assessor's office and gave her mother full-time care in her home until she passed away. 
During that time, Sandra had a stroke, and her determination to recover was amazing, just so she could continue to care for her mother full-time.
Sandra loved people, she always had a kind word to anyone she met, and, being a native of Idaho Springs, she knew a lot of people and their children and grandchildren. Sandra was also a fervent animal lover, and many of us remember her taking in stray dogs and cats, injured birds, and any animal that had a need. She fed birds, deer, raccoons and even skunks, and she named all of them. Sandra would even do without to make sure she could care for her animals.
Sandra gave her children many fond memories. She loved camping and hiking and always had her bird, rocks and fossils, wildflower, tree and nature books with her. She would always stop and look at something and pull out her book and look it up. She took them to fossil beds and amethyst hunting, and one of their fondest memories was of their summer camping trips.
Another of the memories was of Sandra becoming enthusiastic about yucca plants. They remember her saying that the Indians used all parts of the yucca plant, so to prove it, she served them yucca blossoms in salads, she sautéed the pods and served them as a vegetable, she beat the roots into soap, and she wove the long green foliage into baskets. She ended up poisoning herself because she would put the strands into her mouth to hold them while she wove the baskets.
Sandra's formal education didn't go past high school, but she was always reading and curious for knowledge. She loved reading about American Indians and many other things. While looking through her house recently, she had kept a log of Althea books she had read from the time she retired to 2011.
She read 1,117 books during that period. All of them she had checked out at the Idaho Springs Library. Sandra had a flare for painting and drawing, which she got from her father, Tommy Pritchard. She made the best Halloween costumes and used her creative energies to help with Brownies, Girl Scout, Cub and Boy Scout projects and her children's school projects.
Sandra's skills in the kitchen sometimes didn't turn out the way she wanted, but we all remember her laughing at herself and making everyone else laugh and somehow making everything OK. Sandra was good at seeing the humorous parts in any situation and laughing and making you feel good.
The best thing about Sandra was her laugh. It was so genuine, spontaneous and wonderful. She could make you feel like laughing and forgetting your troubles for a while. That is the thing I think many of us will miss the most about Sandra.
Sandra is survived by her children, Doug Michaelis and Kendra De Geus; her grandchildren, Emilee Trask, Matthew Michaelis, Megan Rauscher, Sarah, Justin and Joshua De Geus; and three great- grandchildren, Mylee, Miles and Malek Trask.
Sandra was preceded in death by her grandparents, Charles and Florence Hokansen; parents Thomas B. Pritchard and Florence E. Hawkins; and her brother, Charles E. Pritchard.