Eula M. Ostrom

93, taught her family lessons in living up to the end -- a teacher and nurturer always. Born in Palatka, a small town in northern Florida, on July 29, 1908, Eula died peacefully Saturday April 20 at Swedish Hospital First Hill of congestive heart failure, her family by her side. The youngest and last survivor of five children born to William Mac Curry and Jennie Lackore Curry, Eula came to Seattle with her family in 1917 after a grueling two-month, five-thousand mile cross-country adventure in a motorcar on roads of rocks and mud, enduring flat tires and engine breakdowns almost daily. Eula's mother, Jennie, who had been advised by her doctor to move to a cooler climate, recalled their arrival in Seattle in a letter to a friend: ''The air was cool with mountain freshness and filled with the salt tang of the ocean.'' Jennie, who lived to be age 99, settled with her family in Montlake, and Eula thrived as well, attending Broadway High School and the University of Washington, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1929 and took a master's degree in Romance Languages. She taught high school in Fall City and Edmonds until 1946, when she married Cameron Walthew Ostrom, son of a local surgeon. Cameron was then a mushroom grower, a man who had found success in fungus cultivation where others had failed. They met at a party, and Cameron was smitten from the start. He said later that he had been able to catch this beautiful, intelligent and incredibly sweet woman only because Eula had been slowed down by a broken leg, the result of a skiing accident. At the party, Cameron wondered out loud to Eula what would happen if her leg under the cast began itching, and his name stuck in Eula's mind afterwards as she tried to push a knitting needle under the plaster to scratch the sudden itch she'd developed. Their marriage wasn't always easy, but Eula had a clear vision: support and love her children, Carol Marie Ostrom and Lynn Cameron Trafton of Houston, Texas. She seemed not to notice their occasional thoughtlessness, wayward directions and even failings, always giving them the benefit of any doubt she should have had. She moved with Cameron to Canada in 1964 when he sold the Ostrom Mushroom Company, and adapted as they lived on their boat for more than a year before they built a home at Maple Bay, British Columbia. Cameron died in 1971, and for the next 30 years Eula lived independently, a stubbornly self-sufficient streak guiding her life until the last year, when she obtained assistance in living at Faerland Terrace on Capitol Hill, adapting to new routines and making new friends. Eula's Scottish heritage always helped her move forward through life ''one step at a time,'' and to ''do the best you can,'' maxims that stood her in good stead as she faced death with grace and dignity. She trusted Lynn, Carol and Glen Sims, her son-in-law and ardent fan, and knew they would be there for her, and they were. Her family also included her nieces, Joan Morgan, Gail Terrell and Karen Williamson, her grand-dogs, Magnolia Raylene Sims and Tara Belle Trafton, and Bubba the Bird, her cockatiel, who gave her great comfort in her later years. Eula was preceded in death by her husband Cameron, her sister Ruth Curry, and her brothers George Norman Curry, Leverett Lackore Curry and William Mac Curry. At Eula's request, no services will be held, but her family and close friends will gather to remember her later this year. The family suggests memorials to Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, 2001 East Madison, Seattle WA 98122.

See also the following web-site for the Seattle Times article dated Friday, April 26, 2002: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/obituaries/134443481_ostromobit26m.html