Lyla Marie Bechard

Lyla Marie (Meeker) Bechard devoted wife, mother, grandma and great grandma, passed away May 17th of AML.

She was born March 21st, 1948 in Eldora, Iowa, the second of four daughters born to Willard and Mary Meeker. She married Nick Bechard May 31st, 1968 and they had one daughter Tiffany (Bechard) Berry.

Lyla was a nurse for 44 years. She spent 10 years at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines and worked at Havasu Regional Medical Center for 33 years after moving to Lake Havasu City in 1985. She believed strongly in her profession and took great pride in her work and the younger nurses she helped train. She wore a "proper" nursing uniform to work every single day and is remembered by both coworkers and patients as, "The nurse in the white dress."

Lyla loved nursing but her greatest joy was her family. She and Nick shared a marriage of nearly 55 years, one daughter, four grandchildren, and six grandsons. She loved to cook, and dinner at Grandma Lyla's was a weekly event for her family and their friends.

She was an active member of Saint Michael's Methodist Church and enjoyed weekly Tai Chi and hula hooping, and going for walks in Rotary park.

She was proceeded in death by her parents Willard and Mary Meeker and her youngest sister, Dorothy Bear.

She is survived by her husband Nick( LHC), her sisters Susie Reese (Eldora, Iowa) and Jean Hempel and husband Steve (Omaha, Nebraska), her daughter Tiffany Berry (LHC), former son-in-law Chris Berry (LHC), her grandchildren Nick Berry (North Carolina), Christopher Berry (LHC), Donovan Berry and wife Katrisa (LHC) and Caitlin Berry (LHC) as well as grandsons Christopher (CJ), Jayson, Kade, Emett, Ethan and Grayson.

We are all so blessed to have learned how to love from her. Her legacy of loving and caring for others lives on in the nurses she taught and the family she loved. We will miss you Mom, until we meet again.

Services will be held Saturday, May 27th at 10 AM at St Michael's United Methodist Church.