Dolores Shoebotham

88, San Diego

Dolores Shoebotham was known as a loving mother, a warm hostess and a free spirit who loved to travel.

“She had a really good sense of humor,” daughter Cindy McIntyre said about Shoebotham, who she said was the family member who always hosted get- togethers. “The grandkids loved to be around her. The kids loved to come over and play games. She always had good desserts for us.”

Shoebotham was born in 1931 and died June 14 at 88 of complications from COVID- 19. Her final days were spent in hospice care at a facility for people with dementia, where she had lived for 17 months. Although safety precautions were followed, McIntyre suspects her mother was exposed to a staff member who was asymptomatic but contagious.

She left behind a daughter, McIntyre, son Steve Shoebotham, four grandchildren, two great- grandchildren and many happy memories.

McIntyre described her mother as a career homemaker who loved to get out of the house and hit the road. She was afraid of f lying, so Shoebotham and the family took road trips across the country, once driving all the way to Alaska.

Shoebotham was the oldest of five siblings and quit high school to work as a switchboard operator to help support her family while growing up in Nebraska.

At 20, she married her high school sweetheart, Edgar, whose position in the Coast Guard took the couple to several cities. He was stationed in North Island air base in San Diego when he retired at 55.

“They had a great life,” McIntyre said. “My dad took good care of her, and she took care of him.”

The couple were married for 66 years, and Edgar died last year.

“They are together again,” she said of her parents. “My family, along with the families of the other 200,000- plus families who have lost a loved one, miss them daily. The dementia had taken my mother from us in many ways. COVID took her forever.”