Shirley Evelyn (Trump) Asplund

Shirley was born in Berkeley on July 20, 1935. We are not sure she ever really left. Her parents were Hugo and Evelyn Trump. She was raised in her parent's apartment building, along with about 20 little old lady tenants who adored her and guided her through her childhood. She attended Hillside Elementary School, Garfield Jr. High and onto Berkeley High School. She also attended UC Berkeley, graduating in 1958 with a degree in Criminology. After graduation and onto marriage, her 1st stop was Red Bluff then Fresno. She worked for Social Welfare in Fresno and learned what the colloquialism "well, if that doesn't take the rag off the bush…" meant! Her next stop was Santa Clara where she started raising a family. Her go-to person (or shall we say a mentor of sorts) was Dr. Spock. Shirley felt his best advice was, "NO, is a complete sentence!"

Her last and longest place of residence was Morgan Hill. Early on she helped a friend start a pre-school. Then worked as a Teacher's Aid and as the Director of the South County Red Cross. Working here and there, until her personal demons sent her to her true calling – Counseling. She returned to school and earned her Master's degree in Family Counseling with an emphasis on alcohol abuse and addictions. Her favorite saying being, "de-Nile is not just a river in Africa!" She worked for various agencies and ended up starting her own counseling practice. Helping herself and many others along the way.

Shirley never really retired. After her foray into counseling, she involved herself in all things growing and became a Master Gardener. She could pronounce and spell pretty much any plant. She could pontificate on Linnaean taxonomy and divide and identify plants from those classifications. As Will Rogers never met a man he didn't like, Shirley never met a plant she didn't like. As her digging slowed, she became an avid reader and collector of gardening books and magazines. The flora and fauna in pictures became her world.

Her love of words and the English language was notorious in our family. Accepted happily when she would help with a turn of a phrase but dreaded with a correction. We feel her smiling down at us with the usage of the word "pontificate" yet scowling at our attempts to chronologize her life.

She will be missed greatly, and we hope up in Heaven she will find the peace and beauty she found here on earth within her garden of life.

Published in Morgan Hill Times · February 21, 2023