![dani and lizzy dancing in the sky wiki dani and lizzy dancing in the sky wiki](https://townsquare.media/site/490/files/2021/07/attachment-219730152_202658308533201_2752914143388671032_n.jpg)
She was an amazing seamstress and had a knack for gardening her garden was one of her happy places. She was known as the dollar grandma because as her family grew, the birthday presents came down to sending them each a dollar apiece so near or far they always knew she remembered their birthday. In her 80s, she went on a weeklong African safari in Kenya after visiting her son, Michael, in Uganda, one of her favorite regions in the world. She made solo journeys to China, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. Even after her husband’s death in 1985, Gertrude took multiple trips overseas. In 1966, she and Joseph made a trip to Europe, where their daughter, Carole, lived, for what they called their honeymoon 25 years later. When she returned, Gertrude met her husband, Joseph Stachofsky, and they married in 1941 in Seattle - and, as she described, they dated every day for 44 years and raised their children. That trip sparked a lifelong passion in her inner-nomad, a passion she’s had a century to indulge. There were two world’s fairs going on at the time - one in New York, one in San Francisco - and she wanted to go to both of them. It didn’t matter that she’d spend a month traveling alone on the road, hopping from home to home in various states. In 1939 at 24 years old, she decided to see the country by bus. She worked as a bookkeeper at Deaconess Hospital.
![dani and lizzy dancing in the sky wiki dani and lizzy dancing in the sky wiki](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TuYkwyGCpS8/maxresdefault.jpg)
She moved to California upon graduation to attend Taft Junior College for two years, then returned to Spokane and graduated from Kinman Business University with a degree in office work. She helped care for her younger siblings as they grew up together on the family farm, and throughout her schooling, she retained a perfect attendance record and made a mile-long walk to school each day. She was preceded in death by her husband, Joseph her son, Michael her daughter, Patty and her stepdaughter, Joyce. Gertrude was born July 23, 1915, in Rice, Wash., to Viola and Maynard McReynolds. Gertrude Stachofsky passed away Tuesday, March 10, 2020, surrounded by her family.