On the night of Monday, January 8th, Phyllis (Oswalt) Hosko, age 79, went to be with her Lord and Savior surrounded by her loving family. This ended a long battle with rheumatoid arthritis and numerous ailments and delivered her to a place where she can finally be free of pain.
Phyllis was born on September 6th, 1938 in Palisade, Nebraska, to Grace and Floyd Oswalt. She was the youngest of nine children, joining three sisters and five brothers. After three years on the old family home in Nebraska the start of WWII called three brothers to war and the rest of the family to Washington State. They first landed in Kennewick in 1942 where her father was a carpenter on the Hanford project. After losing her father to a heart attack in the early 50s, she and her mother moved to Grandview, where she attended Grandview High School. While there she was a member of the drill team and elected homecoming queen in her senior year, before graduating in 1956.
After graduating from high school Phyllis began working for the ASCS Office in the Benton County Courthouse annex in Prosser where she met Pete Hosko. It was just a summer job for Pete while he was attending college at WSC, now known as WSU, in Pullman, but he ended up finding a love that would last a lifetime. After a brief courtship they were married in Grandview in August of 1958.
Phyllis and Pete had two children, Mike and Debbie. After the children started school Phyllis returned to working outside of the home to finance family vacations. She loved the jobs that she held because she loved interacting with people and serving them. She worked as a Soda Jerk at Cross Pharmacy, a secretary for a lumber store and finally, her favorite job, working as a teller for Prosser Old National Bank. Her arthritis became so crippling that she had to quit her teller job which broke her heart. After her grandsons were born and she was able to be with them so often, she said that maybe the Lord had allowed her arthritis so that she could stay home and be available for them. She loved her job of being grandma the best.
Phyllis and Pete enjoyed many trips to Lincoln City Oregon, several trips to Disneyland with the kids and then grandkids, lots of visits to Dodger Stadium, a memorable trip with friends to Kauai, and in later years, several trips to Branson, Missouri and a cruise to Alaska.
Phyllis and Pete loved to dance in their early years at the Walnut Grove Grange Hall as members of the infamous 30-70 dance club. Another favorite event was the monthly prawn feed at the VFW. When her husband played in the local softball association you could find Phyllis cheering him on from her lawn chair. She has always been her husband’s biggest fan. They were also members of the Prosser Jaycees. They attended and were members for several years at the Friendship Baptist Church in Prosser. Phyllis loved teaching her Sunday School little ones. They stayed active in the church until she found it too hard to attend due to her arthritis.
Phyllis is survived by her loving husband of nearly 60 years, Peter Hosko, her two children, Debbie (Hosko) Hanson and husband, Carl and Michael Hosko and wife, Karen; grandchildren, La Tosha Hosko, Tony Hosko, Jonathan Hanson, and Matthew Hanson; and great-grandchildren, Raelee, Brianna, Michael, Dwan, and Jayden Hosko. Phyllis is also survived by her sister, Jean (Oswalt) Schwartz, brother-in-law, Bob Hosko; sister-in-law, Ida Mains; sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Doris and Roger Bates; and many beloved nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by parents, Floyd and Grace Oswalt; brothers, Ed, Dick, Joe, Bud, and Delbert Oswalt; and sisters, Dorothy (Oswalt) Brunkhorst and Donna (Oswalt) Hudson.
Phyllis had many physical ailments, the worst being the rheumatoid arthritis that entered her life at the early age of 24. She fought through many surgeries and injuries that were associated with the drugs and treatments that were meant to combat her arthritis. She rarely complained and had a sweet spirit through it all. The last year and a half of her life, Phyllis was not able to walk. She was confined to her hospital bed in her daughter’s living room with her husband nearby. She was loving and spunky and full of life to the end. She often jokingly called her hospital bed her “boat” that she was floating along in. She was rarely in pain and she was very alert due to the fact that she was under the care of Chaplaincy Hospice Care. We cannot thank Hospice enough for their loving and caring staff that helped us to enable her to live out her life with love and dignity. She still felt a purpose for her life because she said that she could pray for others and that was a joy to her. She was a true prayer warrior and we are sure that her prayers helped so many who will never know she was praying for them.
Our peace is in knowing that Phyllis went home to her Lord and Savior just the way she had always wanted, in her own bed surrounded by her loving family, quickly and painlessly.
Phyllis’ death is heartbreaking to those who miss her presence but it is a blessing that she no longer feels the pain that she has been living with for the past several decades. Thank you to so many friends and family who blessed her life through difficult, yet joyous times.
Please join the family in a celebration of Phyllis’ life, which will be held at Bethel Church, 270 North Gap Road, Prosser, WA, at noon on Saturday, January 27th. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Chaplaincy Hospice Care. You may leave a message for the family at www.prosserfuneralhome.com
