Josephine J. Giffard

 Josephine at fourteen years old

After a short romance, Josephine and Ralph were married on May 12, 1945. Together they built their own home and started their family putting down roots in Oildale, California where they raised three children. Their marriage lasted for almost 56 years when Ralph passed away on Josephine’s birthday in 2001. Their eldest child was Toni Giffard Foster of Highland, Utah, followed by Ken Giffard who with his wife Joanne, lives in Sacramento, California. Their youngest son, Greg Giffard presently lives with his wife Patti in Oildale, California.

While she did not work after marrying Ralph, the love, dedication, and inspiration that Josephine gave her family was what she most contributed to her community. She helped Ralph become a successful building contractor, had three children who owned their own businesses including an escrow company, a building contracting business, a law office, and an internet business. All three of her children became educated and successful drawing inspiration from the drive and nurturing imparted by Josephine.

Josephine with Ralph and their budding family in 1951

Through Josie’s guidance and encouragement, which included expecting superior grades in school and seeking lofty lifetime goals, her three children flourished. She and Ralph instilled in their children a work ethic and spirit of independence. Ralph demanded perfection and a love of nature. Josephine taught them to be loving, respectful, kind, and generous to others.

Out of high school, her daughter Toni first worked for a bank and then became a licensed escrow officer, which led to her becoming the owner of an independent escrow company in Los Angeles. Years later after selling her escrow company, Toni moved to Utah, where she was employed as a licensed Title Officer, and later, because of her experience, became a Learning Specialist at First American Title Insurance Company in Salt Lake City, Utah. Toni remembers that after her escrow company was a success, Josephine encouraged her to continue her education to become a real estate attorney. Toni demurred, content to continue as an escrow officer and later, as a title officer. Toni’s son and Josephine’s oldest grandson, Joseph “MoJo” Foster, graduated with a Masters in Art from the Clermont Universities, and was a featured tattoo artist for several years on the reality television show L.A. Ink.

Her youngest son Greg was the last to leave the family home. He was also instilled with a strong work ethic and was encouraged by Josephine to excel academically. Leaving high school with his mom’s urging and encouragement, he applied for and was accepted into the School of Architecture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. After three years at Cal Poly, Greg followed in his father’s footsteps with a career as a licensed building contractor. Later, he finished his career supervising the renovation or construction of numerous commercial structures throughout California. Greg attributed his success to the values instilled in him by his parents and the love given him by Josephine.

Although she was open-minded and encouraged creative thought, she still placed limits on the children. When her oldest son was to be confirmed, he wanted to take the name of St. Ignatius as a confirmation name. . . thus giving him the initials of K.I.N.G. for Kenny Ignatius Norman Giffard. Josephine thought that although it was novel and cute, it was not going to happen. His confirmation name became Joseph after St. Joseph and his grandfather, Joseph Robles.

As a wife, Josephine dealt with Ralph’s back, which was horribly scarred from burns suffered as a six-year-old. At night she would rub lotion on the scars and contractures that covered his back from his shoulders to his buttocks. In addition, she was there for him when he suffered intense pain from those burns. She was also there when they had family and friends to share the happier parts of their lives. Even though she didn’t smoke, she grudgingly put up with the cigarettes that Ralph rolled and smoked every day. She especially enjoyed those days when family or friends came over to spend an evening talking and playing cards. They played Canasta when Ralph’s mother came to visit, but their favorite was hours drinking beer and playing Pinocle. Because she had but one kidney, her drinking was limited to sipping at a beer throughout the night. At the same time, Chinese checkers, crossword puzzles, picture puzzles and an assortment of games kept the children busy.

Although she did not work while married to Ralph, Josephine was savvy and skilled enough to occasionally lend him help when needed on his building projects. She helped Ralph and the children construct a family cabin in the mountains in Frazier Park, California. She painted, helped nail sheet rock when necessary, and became very skilled and talented in constructing rock retaining walls at all of their residences. Truly, she loved her flowers and nurtured her dichondra lawn at the family home they built in Oildale.

An incident with a neighbor showed her compassion, humanity, and forgiveness. Early in their marriage, Josephine used her cosmetology skills to give her next-door neighbor Mrs. Monroe a permanent. Although she had warned Mrs. Monroe that the permanent might fail because of the process that the neighbor had insisted-upon, it failed and caused her to become the “bad neighbor” that everyone in life loathes. For years thereafter, the neighbors would burn their garbage when Josephine’s house was down-wind. The daily icy glare that Mrs. Monroe gave, telegraphed her hate . . . until the day that her husband died. Josephine comforted the grieving widow, while Ralph helped take care of the deceased husband. From that day on, Mrs. Monroe and Josephine were the best of friends.

Several years later, Ralph took the TV set away, after warning the children that they were watching too much television and not spending enough time on their studies. After that, Friday evenings were spent at her mother’s house where Josephine watched her favorite television show. . on a TV that Ralph couldn’t take away.

Josephine put up with Ralph because she loved him. However, he was hard-headed and sometimes difficult to live with. He was the bread-winner, and they both suffered those long days when work was slow in coming. Josephine was the peace-maker who always made sure that the children were loved and were close to their families: most of her family lived in the Oildale area, while Ralph’s lived in the Los Angeles area. However, tension with Ralph one day, made her end up in a local hospital with a nervous break-down.

Josephine and ralph in retirement at a dance