Ella Wallace to be remembered at Sunday ceremony in Chugiak

Strong.

Compassionate.

Determined.

Those are the words Ella Wallace’s daughter, Stephanie LeProwse uses to describe her mother.

Most likely, those words will be heard over and over again as family and friends gather on Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Rivers Edge Gallery on the Old Glenn Highway to remember the woman that stood behind the area’s long-time highly colorful patriarch, Thillman Wallace. Ella Wallace lived a life all her own — one that was just as big as the one that saw her husband travel alone from Australia to Alaska to begin his life here.

“She could do anything,” LeProwse said.

And she did.

From bicycling up the Alaska-Canada Highway with two friends to homesteading with her husband and peeling their own logs for their home, Ella not only could, but did anything.

That included “putting up with Dad,” LeProwse said in a joking, yet loving manner that only folks who knew Thillman would understand.

He had lots of ideas, LeProwse said. These included bringing the Chacon – a boat long “docked” to the ground near the gallery which used to be the Fuji Gifts – to start a fishing business in the Knik Arm, to buying horses to begin a ranch.

“Mom never criticized his ideas,” LeProwse said. “She just figured out a way to make it work.”

Ella was 81 years old when she died on Feb. 26, 2017. She was born on July 27, 1935 in Switzerland and she never lost her European roots including an accent that easily gave away the fact that she not originally from around these parts.

The bicycle she rode up the Al-Can – which will be on display at Sunday’s service – sports plenty of Swiss decorations including an authentic cow bell.

Back in the day – in 1958 when Ella purchased the three-speed, it indeed was the latest and greatest, LeProwse said.

“Can you imagine my mom and two friends just pedaling along up the Al-Can on these bikes with all the gear they had to carry?” LeProwse said with an admiring smile. “This bike weighs at least three times what one does today.”

Yet, pedal Ella did — right into the arms of Thillman – at least inadvertently.

Ella and her childhood friends, Ruth and Sonja, had made it to Alaska and were pedaling along the Old Glenn Highway when they came upon some men working on concrete blocks.

As fate would have it, Thillman was among them. After all, he and brother, Art Wallace – the longtime owner of Fuji Gifts – were working their new business — at the time, Wallace Construction, later to become Klondkike Concrete.

Local legend has it that Thilman was immediately smitten by the woman affectionately referred to as the “Swiss Miss” and he spent many an evening the next week or so checking local campgrounds to find her scarf tied to a bush or tree so he would know where to find his newfound love.

They married on March 17, 1960 and Ella began a life of living on the mountain top with Thillman where she could see as far as the eye could stretch across the Knik Arm and over to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. She grew flowers all around the property.

It is one of the reasons LeProwse decided to wait until summer to host a memorial for her mother.

Ella had also grown flowers around the pond adjacent to the Chacon just off the Old Glenn.

Last weekend, LeProwse and friends spruced up the garden which now serves as a peaceful spot for visitors to the art gallery and others to just pause and remember the woman whose life impacted so many in the local area.

LeProwse herself had no idea just how wide-reaching her mother’s impact was until after her death when she opened her mother’s checkbook.

“She gave and gave and gave to so many organizations,” LeProwse said. “I had no idea. But she just gave and gave to support whatever was needed.”

Editor’s Note: Stephanie LeProwse invites anyone that knew her mother, Ella Wallace, to stop by the Rivers Edge Gallery located at 17049 Old Glenn Highway in Chugiak from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Amy Armstrong is one of the Co-Conspirators in Communication at Tripod Communications, LLC, along with Melinda Munson and Gretchen Wehmhoff. Together they own Alaska Family Fun Online Magazine.