Ailene H. Sanford Cozine passed away Jan. 21, 2008, at 12:22 a.m. We hope she is accepted in heaven as well as she was here. She was born in Bristol, Colo., Oct. 6, 1923. Her family moved to Kansas for a few months and then moved to the little town of Ayr, Neb. The population there was 156 when she met her husband-to-be, Max E. Cozine. She was almost 20 years old at that time. He was a sailor just getting home on leave. They were married nine months later on Sept. 24, 1943.

She is survived by three great sons and one equally great daughter. Each of her four children now has two children and those eight grandchildren have 10 great grandchildren so far. Her husband was career Navy and so they lived at 23 different addresses while raising their family. Mike was born in Hastings, Neb.; Robert in Corpus Christi, Texas; Patty in Oahu, Hawaii; and Alan in Tom’s River, N.J. They arrived on Whidbey Island on April 1, 1955, and have lived, loved and worked here since.

In 1960, she took up hammer and saw and helped her family build their home. It has 3,400 square foot of floor space with four bedrooms for her family of six and she kept it neatly arranged and really clean and shined. She also helped outside, riding the grass mower to keep the four acres of lawn mowed and also helped in the garden and orchard.

Sandy was the first salaried person when Whidbey Federal Credit Union was formed in Oak Harbor. She stayed with them for 25 years. She was the senior accountant for the first 20 years. She retired for a couple of years and went back to work there for another five years. A while later, she went to work at the Oak Harbor Senior Center where she became one of the front desk accountants for eight more years. When she retired from there, she had held that job longer than any of the accountants then employed.

She and her husband have been a fixture in the bowling community of Oak Harbor. They have bowled on several leagues at the Oak Bowl since it was a brand-new six-lane facility and on other leagues on base.

Lately she had been making baby clothes and blankets for the Navy. She was only about 20 hours short of 10,000 hours of knitting and crocheting for the little ones.

She loved the Mariners and watching them on television as well as the Seahawks and the Sonics. She also loved working on jigsaw puzzles with her family, and with her help, they have completed over 500 puzzles. Crossword puzzles were a huge passion. She even created her own extensive crossword dictionary to help complete new crossword puzzles.

She will be greatly missed by all her family and friends.

A wake will be held to celebrate her life on Sunday, Jan. 27, at the Sierra Country Club, 2685 San Juan Street, Coupeville, from to 1 to 5 p.m.