Sandra June "Sandy" Bridges

Sandra June “Sandy” Bridges passed peacefully from this life early Friday morning, November 13, 2020 at her home in Rohnert Park, California. After a brief illness and hospitalization, Sandy returned home to spend her last several days surrounded and cared for by family and was particularly blessed to have her daughter Robin and granddaughter Andraya provide loving nursing care. Sandy was born Sandra June Upchurch September 19, 1945 in Petaluma, California to Edward Upchurch and June Lemieux. She spent her childhood years in Petaluma and Santa Rosa, graduating from Montgomery High School. She married Robert Yarnal in January 1963 and during the thirteen years together they had two children, a son, James and daughter, Robin. In 1972 she moved into a new home in Rohnert Park, living there for the rest of her life. Sandy married Morris Bridges in 1978 and enjoyed 38 years of marriage until his passing in 2016. Sandy worked as a waitress for nearly 20 years at Negri’s Italian Restaurant in Occidental and operated a remarkably successful daycare at her home for many years after. Sandy had many interests, the vast majority of them surrounding or connected to family gatherings. If you have been to Sandy’s house 4 or 5 times, chances are good you are recorded on video, captured in a snapshot, or tucked away somewhere on Super-8. Sandy recorded everyone and every occasion, from her 10,000 trips to Disneyland, to camping with nieces and nephews and grandkids, to the sharing of incredible food spreads when all the family got together at her house for holidays, birthdays, and other celebrations. Sandy baked incredible cookies and made ornate Christmas candies that everyone waited for. When you went to Sandy’s house for whatever reason, you were greeted with a smile and made to feel welcome. She loved her family deeply, did what she could to make everyone feel comfortable, and somehow recorded virtually all of it. She was an incredible woman. Perhaps the next best thing to being a family member or a friend of Sandy’s was to be a little dog. Each and every one of them got the royal treatment and being adopted by her was the break of a lifetime. Be it family member, friend, or a little dog with a hard-luck story, we are all the better for knowing her, and each will miss her in our own way. Sandy is survived by siblings, Evonne Fenton and husband Michael, brother Phillip Upchurch and wife Rosie, brother Jeffrey Campbell and wife Christina. She was preceded in death by younger brother Michael Upchurch. She leaves son James Yarnal and wife Jennifer, daughter Robin Simi and husband Michael, son Paul Bridges and wife Joanne; daughter Christine Smith; grandsons Nicholas, Anthony, Timothy and Ian, and granddaughters Andraya, Jacqueline, Angelina, Rachel, Tasha, Tawny and Tori. Sandy also leaves four great-grandchildren. There will be a graveside service on Monday November 23, 2020 @ 2:00pm at Cypress Hill Memorial Park at 430 Magnolia Avenue, Petaluma CA. A celebration of life will be held at Sandy’s home, 8737 Lords Manor Way in Rohnert Park on Sunday November 22, 2020 at 1pm. (COVID guidelines in place)

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