COVID VICTIM REMEMBERED AS LOVING MOTHER, TRAVELER
Remembered as a loving mother, a warm hostess and a free spirit who loved to travel, Dolores Shoebotham is one of more than 800 San Diego County residents who died of complications from COVID-19 this year.
“She had a really good sense of humor,” daughter Cindy McIntyre said about Shoebotham, whom 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 died June 14 at 88. 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.
“Everybody would come over to our house and hang out,” McIntyre remembered about her mother’s hospitality while growing up in Clairemont. “She’d bake the cookies. She took care of us really, really well.”
McIntyre described her mother as a career homemaker who also loved to get out of the house and hit the road. She was afraid of flying, so Shoebotham and the family took road trips across the country, once driving all the way to Alaska.
“We all had our own RVs,” McIntyre said. “It was a big family vacation each summer. We were a very close family.”
Shoebotham was the oldest of five siblings, and she 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 when he retired at 55, creating more opportunities for travel.
“They had a great life,” McIntyre said. “My dad took good care of her and she took care of him.”
The couple was married for 66 years; Edgar died last year.
McIntyre took her mother out for dinner March 12, but would not get to see her again for three months because of restrictions on visitors at the facility where she was living.
On May 28, someone at the facility called to tell McIntyre that her mother had signs of COVID-19. She was taken to Scripps La Jolla, but after 10 days her condition grew worse.
“The doctor asked if we would like to come see her in person,” she said. “My brother, sister-in-law and I rushed to Scripps that evening. We were greeted by the incredible nursing staff, who suited us in the PPE, and I was able to see my mother one last time in person.”
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