Sandra Dunkle, born Sandra Ketenheim is an eccentric, wacky, out of pocket grandma that always has a dirty joke up her sleeve. She is 79 years old yet she does not look it nor act like it in the slightest. Something incredibly valuable upon age is not losing that childlike spark, that sense of humor and personality that you’ve carried throughout your life and Sandra is the embodiment of being true to herself through adulthood and now into senior adulthood.
Sandra was born in Cresson, Pennsylvania and spent her childhood there as well. Born to Kenneth W. Ketenheim, a gentle giant who would never lay a finger on the kids, “strict but loving,” and Verna Ketenheim, a woman of discipline and “had the fastest right hand on the North side. She got her sense of humor from her mother and her strong cadence that carried into her style of parenting as she grew up and became a mother of three. As a kid, she spent most of her time outside. Roller skating, walking in stilts, making paper dolls and riding her bike until she was blue in the face. She never stopped and was always active and finding fun anywhere she could. Sandra was never a bad kid, unlike her middle child, Craig Lumbatis, who gave her a run for her money. She recalled her childhood fondly, as loving and having her earliest memories being her dad holding her in the air like an acrobat and her mom baking bread.
The combination of her childhood mixed with her struggles in adulthood of losing her youngest child, Justin Lumbatis, to cancer in his early teen years has shaped her into a role model for her grandchildren and that fun loving grandma every kid wishes they had growing up. She carries with her the joys of what it felt like to be raised in the 50’s and 60’s, both parents present, food on the table, and never an empty house. She grew up with a tight knit family and did everything in her power to bring that dynamic to her own children and grandchildren.
Her personality radiates from her within the first word of a conversation with her. You always know what she is feeling, she’s never afraid to run her mouth and speak her truth, she will always ask the uncomfortable questions that ultimately bond you closer with her and every person surrounded by her would say the same thing. Now, as a 79 year old mom, grandma, great grandmother and daughter she brings a light to every room she steps into. Sandra is a breath of fresh air in every sense of the word and a constant reminder of the woman that I wish to be for my future children and grandchildren some day. What a woman she is and what an incredible legacy she will leave behind; one that is full of love, stability, security and always stressing the importance of being who you are no matter what anyone has to say about it.
