Ellen Julia Wilson

ELLEN JULIA WILSON took her first breaths on October 1, 1961, in Los Angeles, California, and was welcomed home with love and excitement by her parents Fay and Wendell Wilson. Fay and Wendell instilled a sense of unwavering love, independence and confidence in Ellen, and she grew up surrounded by family, friends, friends who became family, and a host of people of various cultures, nationalities, and professions.

As a youngster she attended private schools in the Pasadena area - Pacific Oaks Children's School and The Goodwin School. Middle school and ninth grade years were completed at Oakhurst School. It was during her years at Oakhurst that she developed strong friendships that endured throughout her life. After its closure, she attended and graduated from South Pasadena High School. Inspired by family friend (and big sister) Sharon Keele, she went on to Pitzer College, majoring in Psychology and thriving in the college environment. She regularly attended class reunions until Covid-19 rearranged all our schedules. During most of her career she worked in Accounting or Human Resources related positions.

While her work was important to her, Ellen loved spa days in Las Vegas, shopping, and talking to and visiting friends. Starting at an early age, some of her favorite times centered around family and travel. She always looked forward to visiting family members in Springfield, Missouri, where she was one of the cousins - playing, doing chores, going to church, attending Park Day, and experiencing the joy and warmth of family. She also enjoyed spending quality play time with her cousins from Colorado, Fritz and Eric, whom she would sometimes visit, or who would come to visit her during summer vacations. Later in life, she attended Family Reunions whenever she could. At the age of ten, she and her parents went with her brother from Togo, Thomas Apaloo, and his family, to Togo and Ghana in West Africa. She got to know the children in the Apaloo family, and she, and they, formed lifelong memories. At fifteen, she took an educational tour of Europe where she spent time with local families. Her other sister-in-law, Jeannie Toungara, met her in London, and took her to Abidjan, in the Ivory Coast, where she and brother Adama resided. Ellen spent about two months with them and was very proud of having learned to get around with the French she was learning. She remembered and cherished the people and places she encountered wherever she went.

In 1995, Ellen relocated to the East Bay Area of northern California, settling in Fremont, making new friends, and continuing her accounting work - for many years at The Horn Group in San Francisco, and most recently at the University of California, Berkeley. With Wendell's help, she was able to contact and meet her birth mother, who passed away shortly thereafter. She also became acquainted with her birth father at that time. While this was an experience she felt the need to pursue, there was never any doubt that Fay and Wendell were forever Mommy and Daddy.

The best part of relocating to Fremont was finding her Life Partner, James Anderson. They met in 1999, and had been together ever since. When Ellen drew her final breaths, on October 16, 2021, James was there for her. Ellen is survived, and sorely missed by him, as well as her first cousins, Patricia Duncan, Harriet King, and Ferba Lofton, many other cousins, adopted brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and cherished friends. Once again, she has been welcomed home. Let us "say not in grief she is no more - but live in thankfulness that she was." (Hebrew Proverb)