Her Story
Brenda loved country music, one of her favorites were The Judds.
Early Life
Brenda was born February 7th, 1968, in Southern California, to Sandra Maitlen (Layman) and Clifford Maitlen. Brenda was the second daughter of Sandra and Clifford; her sister Letitia Salter (Maitlen) was 4 years older. Brenda was the younger, annoying sister to Letitia, but as they grew up, they became close friends…who still bickered constantly.
Brenda was a funny child who seemed to constantly get herself into predicaments. In one such incident, Brenda found herself trapped in the family home’s sliding glass door to the backyard. She managed to get her head stuck between the door and the frame and couldn’t free herself until a neighbor heard her cries and came to the rescue. She wrote about it years later in a piece titled, The Glass Necklace.
Brenda grew up in Yorba Linda and attended El Dorado High School, the same school her daughter, Noel, graduated from. Fun fact, both Brenda and Noel had the same drama teacher, Gai Jones. Brenda was always a creative person and was active in drama at school. One of her proudest EDHS theatre moments was designing the costume for the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, entering it into a festival, and winning!
Brenda gained 2 brothers, Todd and Jerry Maitlen, and a second mother, Judy Maitlen, when her father, Cliff, remarried in 1975. We always saw them as our own Brady Bunch. Judy had 2 sons about the same age as Cliff’s 2 daughters, and together they made one big new bunch.
The Later Years
Brenda had 2 children. She welcomed her first, Noel Salter, in December of 1986, and her second, Ronald Muller, in August of 1988. She was, and we are in no way biased, the BEST mom we could have asked for. She was a young mother, full of adventure and spontaneity, and she made our childhoods special. Though we struggled with money growing up, Brenda found ways to create magical memories for us. When gas was cheap, we drove to Vegas and hit MnM World and the Coca-Cola factory. We’d eat at a mega buffet and watch Mom from the sidelines play a few slots… I mean, while we were there. If she couldn’t find affordable accommodations for the night, sometimes those trips were just day trips, the car ride just as fun as the destination.
Brenda put herself through school: first completing her GED, then community college, and finally, CSU Fullerton, where she graduated from the Visual Arts department in 2008. All this while raising her children and maintaining a job at Cypress Community College. She pursued her teaching credentials next and was ready to become the wacky art teacher she always wanted to be. She worked as a substitute teacher for the Garden Grove School District for a few years and loved it. She was a hit with her students. We came across a few letters written by some of them detailing what a great teacher she was. She never got to be a full-time teacher, as she had to retire early for health reasons, but she never lost her desire to work. Even in retirement, she became The Tupperware Lady and had a true passion for the product. She was constantly giving away pieces to those she knew. And I have to admit, she was rightfully obsessed with it; Tupperware might be the original multi-level marketing company, but they do make some quality products.
But her most significant role of all had to be Grandma. She was overjoyed to welcome her beloved grandchild, Eliana, in 2017 and spoiled her for years, like all good grandmothers should. Brenda loved Ellie so much that she sold her home in California and moved to Indiana to live closer to Ron, Courtney, and the grandbaby she adored. Her time in Indiana was not as long as we’d all hoped, but she did get to spend a magical holiday season in 2024 with her children, and we will forever be grateful for that time.
