Hester Irene (Crocker) Riggs

 Hester Riggs, 89, passed away in her home on April 18, 2024.

 Hester was born in Bar Harbor, Maine and grew up in Seal Harbor. She joined the army shortly after graduating high school. She met Charles (Bud) Riggs when they were stationed in Virginia.  The picture of them both in uniform was taken when she took him to Maine to meet her parents and he asked for her hand in marriage. Her father replied, “If you think you can handle her.”  They married on June 1, 1957. They were married just short of 67 years. They “handled” each other with patience and love quite well.
  They moved back to Boise in 1958 so Bud could resume his college path that had begun before the service. Charles (Chuck) was born on November 5, 1958, in Emmett, Idaho. They then transferred to Moscow so Bud could attend the University of Idaho. Hester stayed busy raising her growing family but also typing up Bud’s college papers and helping with his grammar. Cynthia Riggs was born in Moscow, Idaho on October 3, 1960.
  After graduating from the university Bud got a job with the Forest Service and moved the family to California. Hester and the brood embraced a dynamic life, relocating to a new place every three years. Another daughter, Sandra Riggs was born August 1, 1968, completing the family.
  As Charlie and Cindy grew, they began to have problems in school and were both diagnosed as being legally blind. Hester and Bud began working at normalizing a life that could have been anything but. Special classes and camps were attended, and Hester was an advocate and
support to ensure the smoothest path possible for her children.
  In 1978 the gang moved to Cody, Wyoming and stayed there until Bud retired in 1990. Hester’s presence wasn’t required as much in the home these days and she took a job working at a day care center and later as a social worker. She was always taking care of people.
  After Bud retired, he, Hester, and Sandra moved to Emmett where Hester ran a storage unit for a few years until she too retired.
  Hester was always tough, taking on whatever the world threw at her. Two of her children passed away before she did. The first time that she heard the words “breast cancer” she decided on a double mastectomy. The difference is she did the surgery as an out-patient, going home that evening. The next time that she had to confront the disease many years later she was only given months to live but it was a year and a half later that she passed away in her own home, always assuring her family that she was ok.

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