Charlotte Hetchens-Hysten

Charlotte Hetchens-Hysten, age 73, of Topeka, passed away on September 24, 2017. She was born in Atchison, KS on January 14, 1944 and most recently resided in Topeka. Grave side services are 11a.m. Saturday, October 14th, at Oak Hill Cemetery in Atchison, Kansas. She was preceded in death by her husband Guy Hysten and is survived by her two children, Tisha Anderson of Lawrence and Ty Hysten of Topeka, as well as her sister Ruth Bufford of Topeka.

Some of you who know Charlotte know that she struggled with very severe mental illness and was in nursing care for the bulk of her adult life. Nevertheless she was still able to instill her strength and her values in both of her children despite suffering unspeakable tragedy and still loved them fiercely to her very last day.

The nurses who cared for her always had wonderful things to say about her when we met them. You could tell how much they cared for Miss Charlotte when they spoke of her and when they came in to care for her. And her caregivers absolutely knew who we were because she talked about her family at great length. When family would stop by to see her, Charlotte wanted ice-cream, hamburger, fries or a shake. If you didn't have those items she would be happy with a cigarette.

Charlotte loved to talk about her loved ones and her past experiences. Much of what she said was a mixture of her own life woven beautifully with the fantasies conjured by her unconscious mind, and through her stories we could hear both of who she was and who she had aspired to be. Even if her stories were inventions of her mind they were beautiful and rich with vivid detail so it was clear that she was living it out at least in her mind. There would often come a build-up and then a punch-line that would send her into a loud moment of carefree laughter.

However, despite the deterioration of her mental state she always remembered her loved ones; her sister, nieces, nephews, son and daughter. Charlotte never forgot a person's face.

She also fiercely loved her grandchildren. She took complete joy and pride and wanted to show them off. She kept pictures of Sophia and Langy and would talk about them endlessly to anyone who would listen. She lit up when she saw them, would offer them whatever small trinkets she may have had as gifts, and would even try to sneak them candy and money. And they always got a hug and a kiss from their grandmother.