1932-2020
Beverly Jean Maier was born in a small California farming town in 1932 to Roy and Emily Doughty. Her parents owned a grocery store and her mother was the meat cutter there.She grew up with three sisters, Betty, Dorothy and Norma and the entire family were members of a horsemen’s association and rode together nearly every weekend.
Beverley, my dear mother was married to my dad, ” Bud ” Maier and they had two sons however my brother Bobby lost his life in a tragic accident in nineteen sixty-nine. I remember that day over fifty years ago as did my mom – as though it was yesterday. That was an event which deeply impacted our lives although my mother’s profound faith in God gave her the strength to always keep moving forward.
Beverley came from a large family which grew to great volume as the years went by. There were many grand-children, nieces and nephews, in-laws and adopted relatives who started out as friends. And in her life she had many friends and business associates who held her in high esteem. Bev Maier always worked since high school and even while being a young mom she still managed to hold down full-time work and take classes at community colleges along the way. As a young woman she worked for over nine years in finance and then went into insurance, eventually landing in a career in Real Estate which she absolutely loved! She was part owner in a firm in Western Washington for nearly thirty years and her specialty was large farms and timberland although she sold many single-family residences. The truth was my mom was the very first woman to ever get her real estate license in our county in SW Washington. She became very involved in community and was active in pageantry and helping to empower young women by mentoring. One of her girls even made it to state competition and it was very exciting for my mom! Bev was talking out loud, standing up for women’s rights and equal pay long before it was chic to do so. She knew what she was talking about because she had worked in the oppressed arenas of factories, mill work, fast foods ( as a car-hop on skates! ) and even took jobs in canaries to help pay the bills if she needed to. She always knew there was something better and was willing to study hard, do the work and earn respect she deserved. If you can’t tell, I was very proud of her. As I’ve told many of the doctors and nurses, care givers who treated her these past couple years – Beverley Maier may live in middle America but she dressed like she worked on Wall Street or Times Square. Her clothes, shoes, hair, makeup and nails – everything was in top shape like she just posed for the cover of a business magazine. Yet, she always carried rubber boots in the car so that when it was time to walk through the woods or the cow manure at the farms – she was always prepared. The farmers and loggers as well as other business owners always admired her.
After retiring from business my mom enjoyed spending time on the beach and walking her dogs, working in the garden and especially learning about computers. In fact she saw the writing on the wall in the early eighties and went to school at night to learn all about home and office computing. Having many years of typing and office management she was like a fish to water when she learned word processing. Then came gaming! She loved to play online games especially later in life.
But there was another reason she remained glued to the pc all the time and that was learning about missing and exploited children. She actually became a part-time sleuth in a couple organizations where the members would share data and try to brainstorm, figure things out that others may have missed. In fact, she was responsible for helping to find a young man who had been missing for years and he was later re-united with his family. I never questioned her motives or ambitions. I knew she was doing some great things to make this world a little bit better, perhaps safer place to live in.
In 2005 my father lost his battle with COPD and left mom on her own. Though my wife and I had years earlier moved far away it would be in the next year when mom came down with sepsis poisoning that my wife quit her job and came back to Washington to move in with and help care for mom. I sold the house and followed a few months later and once again we were a family sticking together through whatever came our way. Three years later Bev had congestive heart failure and chose to quit smoking and all seemed to be going quite well until she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013. We immediately began a long series of radiation therapies until she was told she was cancer free.( picture above after the great news)
For the next few years Beverley Maier would enjoy being independent again and drove her car, right up until summer of 2017. She would then learn that she had a blocked carotid artery which would need surgery but after a second consultation the doctor found she had been having a series of strokes which none of us knew were happening, not even herself. The doc opted out of the procedures siting the high risk of inducing another stroke and suggested we wait six to twelve months and then do some scans again. At the end of that summer she was hospitalized with what was called severe dehydration and hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. She was sent home with a prescription for oxygen 24-7 for the rest of her life and she had care givers in the home for several months.
The purpose of this blog was not to expand on her medical history rather to tell you all about a lady many of you the readers may have known. The fact that she pretty much remained hospitalized from December 2017 until March of 2018 and then was sent to a skilled nursing center until her time of death in January 2020 – is only part of her amazing story and journey on this earth as a human being, wife, mother, sister, grand-mother and friend to many. An entire book on Beverley Jean Doughty – a small town girl with big city dreams of success and a happy family which she did delightfully achieve would likely make for a good read but it’s best to sum it all up and say this was one real tough lady; a fighter, a winner and a woman of faith. She has gone now to catch up to her mother and father, two of her sisters, my dad, brother and my youngest daughter who preceded her in death in December of 2017.
Was she always sweet? Heck no! Was she opinionated? Hell yes! She could sass and hand your tail to you in a brown paper bag at will, even in her final week of life as the care givers all came to know. But Beverley Maier will be remembered for all the good things she did, all the hugs, love and the kindness to strangers and those less fortunate. For her work with empowering young women and urging them to reach for the stars. And, she was the lady, the mom who introduced me to show business at the age of seven. She made my costumes, applied my make-up and dad constructed sets for my dance troupe’s musicals. And she would tell me when I had a little cold and didn’t feel like getting on stage that night that ” The Show Must Go On ” and then she would give me a little push towards the foot lights and yes, I loved what I was doing and she helped me realize not to sweat the small stuff. She never let the small stuff of life slow her down at all through hard times, bad times and sickness for dad or herself. She just kept going as long as possible. And so you know that this is a good lesson for life. Keep moving forward, never look back.
The Show Must Go On!
The " gofundme " Fund Raiser page has been set to help the family pay off remaining debts and funeral home arrangements here:
Beverley Maier Final Expenses fund raiser page
Bruce J Maier
In 2005 my father lost his battle with COPD and left mom on her own. Though my wife and I had years earlier moved far away it would be in the next year when mom came down with sepsis poisoning that my wife quit her job and came back to Washington to move in with and help care for mom. I sold the house and followed a few months later and once again we were a family sticking together through whatever came our way. Three years later Bev had congestive heart failure and chose to quit smoking and all seemed to be going quite well until she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013. We immediately began a long series of radiation therapies until she was told she was cancer free.( picture above after the great news)
For the next few years Beverley Maier would enjoy being independent again and drove her car, right up until summer of 2017. She would then learn that she had a blocked carotid artery which would need surgery but after a second consultation the doctor found she had been having a series of strokes which none of us knew were happening, not even herself. The doc opted out of the procedures siting the high risk of inducing another stroke and suggested we wait six to twelve months and then do some scans again. At the end of that summer she was hospitalized with what was called severe dehydration and hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. She was sent home with a prescription for oxygen 24-7 for the rest of her life and she had care givers in the home for several months.
The purpose of this blog was not to expand on her medical history rather to tell you all about a lady many of you the readers may have known. The fact that she pretty much remained hospitalized from December 2017 until March of 2018 and then was sent to a skilled nursing center until her time of death in January 2020 – is only part of her amazing story and journey on this earth as a human being, wife, mother, sister, grand-mother and friend to many. An entire book on Beverley Jean Doughty – a small town girl with big city dreams of success and a happy family which she did delightfully achieve would likely make for a good read but it’s best to sum it all up and say this was one real tough lady; a fighter, a winner and a woman of faith. She has gone now to catch up to her mother and father, two of her sisters, my dad, brother and my youngest daughter who preceded her in death in December of 2017.
Was she always sweet? Heck no! Was she opinionated? Hell yes! She could sass and hand your tail to you in a brown paper bag at will, even in her final week of life as the care givers all came to know. But Beverley Maier will be remembered for all the good things she did, all the hugs, love and the kindness to strangers and those less fortunate. For her work with empowering young women and urging them to reach for the stars. And, she was the lady, the mom who introduced me to show business at the age of seven. She made my costumes, applied my make-up and dad constructed sets for my dance troupe’s musicals. And she would tell me when I had a little cold and didn’t feel like getting on stage that night that ” The Show Must Go On ” and then she would give me a little push towards the foot lights and yes, I loved what I was doing and she helped me realize not to sweat the small stuff. She never let the small stuff of life slow her down at all through hard times, bad times and sickness for dad or herself. She just kept going as long as possible. And so you know that this is a good lesson for life. Keep moving forward, never look back.
The Show Must Go On!
The " gofundme " Fund Raiser page has been set to help the family pay off remaining debts and funeral home arrangements here:
Beverley Maier Final Expenses fund raiser page
Bruce J Maier
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