Mom left this world the way she lived in it, surrounded by family, pets, laughter and a whole lot of love.
Barbara “Bobbi” Ann Janet Louise Sayers Vance was born Dec. 30, 1943, in Pennsylvania. She married her best friend, Larry, on April 11, 1963, and they had 50 years of marriage under their belts until he passed in 2014, and on Monday, Oct. 18, 2021, she went to be reunited with him.
The Vance family used to say that they didn’t take vacations, they just moved. Mom had her Pittsburgh roots, but carried them with her to Arizona, Hawaii and Idaho — a couple of those places more than once.
She was a character that could make anyone laugh and sometimes didn’t have the filter you would expect from a “Q-tip” as we liked to call her. She loved driving her car and rocking out to Bad to the Bone and making trips to “Rosie’s” (Rosauers) and Big Lots before she got a little too shaky to drive herself any longer. Us girls loved doing our trips to the casino with Mom and crossing our fingers that she would win big. She loved playing bunco and missed it so much with everything shutting down. She looked forward to visiting and trying new recipes the other Bunco Babes brought; it was the highlight for her for many years.
In 2018, Mom was reunited with the son she had given up as a teenager when they video chatted for the first time ever, 57 years after she had given birth and held him briefly before he had been taken away. In September of that same year, they got to meet in person and see each other both in Lewiston and in Pittsburgh a handful of times after that.
Mom was preceded in death by her mother Catherine, husband Larry, and sister Sandra. She leaves behind children Dave Wehner of Pittsburgh, Lauri Vance of Lewiston, Dave (Dee) Vance of Viola, Shari Vance of Clarkston, Hollie Vance of Clarkston, and grandson Logan (Sarah) Vance of Clarkston, not to mention her beloved brothers and sisters in Pennsylvania, Georgia and West Virginia.
It’s Mom and Dad’s wish to be scattered in the waters off of the Kona coast, one of their favorite places to have lived.
If you’d like to donate in Mom’s name, please do so to one of our local animal rescues or to a veterans association. Mom always hoped to win the lottery someday and rescue all of the animals that didn’t have a home, it was a lifelong dream of hers. And you wouldn’t find a more proud or loud clapper at the parades when it came to our flag or veterans.
We would love to have a celebration of Mom, but decided it might not be the best timing with the way things are right now.
Rest in Paradise, Mom, mum, ma, tutu, Bobbi.
We’ll see you and Dad again someday.
