Della Blanche Bulkley

Forever Our Mother and Best Friend. After hours of fighting to breathe, my beloved mother let go and took her beloved sweetheart’s hand, passing into eternal joy. She went home Tuesday, September 10th at LDS Hospital. Her reunion with daddy, her daughter Carol, granddaughter Jodi Lyn, her parents, and all seven siblings is a party to enjoy!
I have walked beside her through my life, caring for her, supporting her, asking for her advice, asking for her support, listening to her life story, holding her when she cried­ she held me when I did. She was my best friend, my mother, I was her’s. I took care of her for 17 years. Now she will care for me through the wisps of the Veil, until we meet again.
Momma was born on the kitchen table in her parents home in Knightsville, Utah. Thereafter, she grew up on their farm in Payson, Utah. She did all that one can do on a farm full of every type of animal and crops! She loved being outside climbing hay stacks, running, driving the tractor, dancing, soaking her feet in the home side ditch. She was an excellent student, earning awards for spelling every year. Her mother taught her to crochet at a young age, along with all the homemaking skills one could possibly use.
When mom was twelve, she fell out of a tree while tending the cattle. She landed on her back. This accident would precipitate spinal pain and deterioration for the rest of her life.
At the age of eighteen she took the train to Salt Lake City to work as a housekeeper for a year. This was a great adventure for her! She was mature beyond her years as the second eldest of eight children born to her parents, Armanella Mae Degraw and Carroll Anderson Wilson. She returned to Payson and entered Brigham Young University. She always wanted to be a nurse. She rode the train every day from home to the campus.
Mom learned to be frugal from her parents, hence she was able to save money at this early age and help pay her way at college. She was frugal to the end of her life, teaching me to do the same. Mom loved learning and always read the daily newspaper and had a book to read constantly throughout her life. Momma decided to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints before finishing her studies. So, at age twenty-one, she embarked on another great adventure!   She entered the mission home in Salt Lake in the Spring of 1938. She was to serve in the Spanish speaking, Spanish American Southwest Mission.
When momma entered the mission home for her two weeks of training, she had no idea her life would be eternally changed in the best way possible! Mom walked along the hallway on the second floor, then preparing to start down the long stair case, she looked down. There standing at the bottom was the most handsome man, Rollo Newman Bulkley. They both felt a zap and fell crazy in love! Daddy left for the Northern States Mission and three months after he came home, they wed in the Salt Lake Temple on May 29, 1940. Daddy wrote in his journal of the joy he felt marrying his “best friend”. They carried on a love affair for the next twenty years, through his two years away in World War II, and the birth of their two daughters, Carol Ann and Michele Dene. They created a home full of all the love you would ever want! Sadly, when mom and dad were forty-three, 1960, daddy passed from a brain tumor. Losing the love of her life was the most devastating event of momma’ s life.
She never remarried. I wish I could have been there to see their sweet reunion!
After dad left, mom completed her nursing training and became a Licensed Practical Nurse. She worked at the old Salt Lake County hospital and the new University Medical Center until she broke her back saving a patient from a fall in 1971. Never being one to give up, she retrained as a Para-Legal and worked until she was 68. Her lifelong motto was, “Tomorrow has to be a better day!”. Since her spinal pain kept her from continuing paid employment she worked in her garden, keeping a compost pile until she was 88, for her vegetables! She had a green thumb! All of her adult life she made crocheted afghans. She gave them to various care centers and Primary Children’s Medical Center until the last few years of her life. She bottled everything and had an ample food storage throughout our lives. Mom loved music, from Operatic to Western.  As a young girl she sang the lead in Madame Butterfly in high school. Mom also knew how to be a friend to her girls.  I would call mom in the middle of the night with anxiety over this or that and she would calm me and help me to return to sleep.  If we felt discouraged, she was always there for us. She celebrated our successes and always said a “C” was okay if we kept trying to do our best! Just the sound of her voice meant all would be okay.
The last years of mom’s life were difficult for her as she tolerated excruciating spinal pain and memory loss. She always wanted to live as long as possible so she could see the great technological advances happening. Her goal to see 100 was in her constant sights! She passed two weeks short of 103!
Her loss is tremendous; however, the hope of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us we will see her soon and live as a reunited family forever!
She is survived by daughter Michele Dene Bulkley and five estranged grandchildren.
A visitation take place at Memorial Holladay-Cottonwood Mortuary located at 4670 S Highland Drive, Holladay. A graveside dedication will follow at 1:00 at the Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park located at 3401 S Highland Dr, Salt Lake City on the North end off of 3300 South.
Service Information
Viewing September 18, 2019 at 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Memorial Holladay-Cottonwood Mortuary, 4670 South Highland Drive, Holladay, Utah





Graveside Service
September 18, 2019 at 1:00 PM
Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park, 3401 S Highland Dr, Salt Lake City, UT 84106