Sylvia E. Trish was born in 1919, the fourth of six children of Danish immigrant parents who owned a small business in Redfield, South Dakota. Their household was filled with visitors and houseguests, music and laughter. After she graduated from high school, she worked in a bank until she married Kenneth W. Reinaas in 1941. When she was widowed in 1954, she returned to work until she married John C. Trish in 1959. They moved their large, combined family to Albert Lea, Minnesota, where she resided for three decades. Her second husband died in 1974. She lived the last two decades of her life in Grinnell, Iowa. Sylvia spent her life taking care of people: her children and grandchildren, the sick and the elderly. She was a solid anchor for her own households, which were filled with children and their attendant demands, and she served the same role in the households of her children. For decades ' and until her death ' she tended to the needs of and provided company for sick and elderly friends. A shy and reserved person, she would always step in to make newcomers comfortable. She was a strong woman, who endured tragic deaths, including those of spouses, children and grandchildren. Although the structure of her life changed repeatedly over the decades, Sylvia was resilient, finding a way to carve out happiness, within many different family arrangements and in many different settings. Her faith was constant and firm, and her Catholicism was a strong part of her identity. Sylvia valued her loving bonds with siblings and with her wide circle of friends, which included people from all stages of her life. Perhaps less obvious to some, she was interested in politics and was a life-long Democrat. She was very proud of her Danish heritage. And she sustained her musical interests over the decades, from her service as a church organist and vocalist when she was a young woman to her involvement in the community chorus and even, briefly, piano lessons in her last decades. Yet abundantly clear to everyone was that her pride in her children and grandchildren was without limit and that she was grateful for the love they extended to her. Sylvia enjoyed her life at the Mayflower Community, living in her own apartment, visiting friends, rarely sitting idle. And most of all, until December 2009, she delighted in her morning swim at the college pool with 'Pfitsch's Fishes.' A memorial in Sylvia's name will be established for the Fine Arts Department of the Grinnell High School.