Trudy Lucy Bowman
April 2, 1928-Nov. 18, 2023
Palo Alto, California

Trudy was a life-long patron of the arts. She regularly attended the San Francisco Symphony, taking the senior shuttle from the Jewish Community Center with her several dear friends in Palo Alto. She attended many plays performed at the Los Altos Stage Company, inviting friends and family to join her.  Trudy loved movies, both contemporary and classic, and she regularly attended Stanford Theater’s film series and festivals.  She was an avid reader, enjoying mystery, history, memoir, fiction, and all forms of news media. In her early 90s, Trudy learned mahjong and began playing twice a month with a close group of friends. She regularly frequented farmers markets, passed up no sample at Costco, and sought out specialty food stores. In addition to containing many tasty treats, Trudy’s kitchen was a cornucopia of single-purpose gadgets: pickle grabbers, cheese slicers, spaetzle makers, and soft-boiled egg piercers. Trudy claimed the name Omi when her grandchildren and grandniece were born, and what an Omi she was! Every child who has ever visited Trudy knows about the unique attention and affection she gave to kids: she asked not if they were hungry but what they were hungry for; she directed them to the toys in the back room or to the cul-de-sac with buckets of chalk or to the backyard to pick fruit and vegetables. Trudy played endless games of Rummikub first with her own children and then with every generation after. She let children play “hairdresser” with her hair; and she enthusiastically applauded acrobatics and dances and singing and art projects and every single thing any child wanted to share with her. Trudy loved nothing more than to hold a baby on her lap, and if she could feed that baby, too, well, all the better! She felt very blessed to have had young children present in her life all the way to the end of her own.  The three tragedies of Trudy’s life were when her sister Marion died at age 59 in 1985, when her husband Curt died in 1999, and when her son Peter died in 2021. She bore the untimely losses of Marion and Curt with the support and love of her family and close friends, but Peter’s death, after he succumbed to brain cancer at the young age of 62, remained painful for her.  Trudy is predeceased by her husband Curt; her sister Marion and her brother-in-law David; and most sadly, her son Peter;  She is survived by her two sons Dennis and Brian and her daughters-in-law Kristi, Suzanne, and Robin; her nephew Adrian and his wife Robyn; her niece Judith and her husband Dany; her niece Claudia and her partner Cathy; her granddaughter Sarah and her husband Will; her granddaughter Amy and her husband James; her grandchildren Hailey, Olivia, and Jake; her step-grandchildren Cris and Daniel; her great-grandchildren Brooklynn, Aubrey, Hunter, and Mason; her step great-grandchildren Colton, Jonathan, and Cooper; her grandniece Marina and her husband Zach; her great-grandnephew Keller and great-grandniece Zelda; and many cousins and cousins of cousins all around the world.  In her last weeks of living, Omi told family and friends who visited and called her that she had had a wonderful life and was ready to die. She said she had fully lived every one her ninety-five years, had no regrets, just a few sorrows, and had loved and been loved by too many people to count. Although she didn’t think there was life after death (but if there was, she was pleased that she would see Peter, Curt, Marion, and her parents again!), she did believe that she would forever remain a part of everyone she loved. Trudy’s granddaughter Amy has said it best: “My Omi, your Omi; she was the Omi to us all.”  May her memory be a blessing to everyone who knew and loved her.