Bonnie Lou Atkinson

Bonnie was born in Walla Walla Washington to Maxine Martin and Ebben Uthe on March 6, 1939. Bonnie and her older brother Ed were raised in a Christian home. Ebben died when Bonnie was young and the family moved around quite a bit to make ends meet. At one time Bonnie's family owned a gas station and restaurant in Milton Freewater, Oregon.

After Bonnie graduated from high school in Milton Freewater, she attended business school Spokane. She rented a room and worked part time at the Moto-Day department store. Her life travels took her to Seattle where she met Ray at a German dinner and dance. Bonnie's good friend had gotten tickets to the dinner and Bonnie had agreed to go with her for something fun to do. Ray and Bonnie ended up sitting next to each other during the dinner and although Bonnie was smitten with Ray's friend Bernie, it was Ray that asked Bonnie to dance. Bonnie was surprised as Ray got up from the table because he was so tall, but they enjoyed dancing with each other and this was the beginning of their relationship and 45 years of marriage.

Bonnie worked for Acme personnel. Her job was to place employees looking for work with employers who had open positions. Bonnie won a state award for the most placements in a month because of her ability to make friendships and growing contacts. Bonnie was good at remembering names and facts about people. If you shared a tidbit of personal information, Bonnie would remember it. It was working at Acme that Bonnie made some lifelong friendships to Ralph and Darlus Palman and her dear friend Ruthie. Bonnie's gift for talking with ease to strangers was a strength for her during her entire life.

Ray and Bonnie were married in June of 1962. They had their first apartment in north Seattle and then later bought their first home in west Shoreline. Ray and Bonnie were frugal hard workers with a large vegetable garden and many fruit and nut trees. They worked hard to can or preserve the harvest each year. Of course there was always more food than they knew what to do with so Bonnie would make up boxes or baskets of tomatoes, plums or peaches for neighbors, co-workers, or friends. She always was thinking about other people and who would actually use fresh horseradish root, rhubarb, or asparagus from the garden. Bonnie was good at giving the extra produce away, cooking, not so much.

Bonnie was a terrible cook. This was maybe because Bonnie's mother Maxine was quite gifted in the kitchen and Bonnie never seemed to learn or pay attention to the cooking going on in the kitchen as she was growing up. One of Ray's favorite stories to tell about Bonnie was of the first meal she made for him. Bonnie decided to make spaghetti. She cooked the noodles and put them on the plate without rinsing them. She then opened up a can of tomato sauce and dumped it on top and then served the plate to Ray. Poor Ray. He ate it without complaining at the time, but we all heard that story over and over again through the years about the terrible spaghetti dinner. Consequently, there were only a few meals on rotation at the Atkinson house for dinner. There was meatloaf at least twice a week, pot roast at least once a week, hamburgers at least once a week, occasionally there was baked chicken or ham. Fried fish or salmon was usually served on Fridays. Notice what was not on the weekly menu, spaghetti.

Marc was born to Ray and Bonnie in July of 1970. During this year they bought their home in north Shoreline where Bonnie spent most of her remaining life. In this neighborhood Bonnie made many good friends including the Hogle's. At this time she quit working at Acme to be a stay at home mom. Jennifer joined the family in August of 1972. Mom loved her children very much but like any parent, she struggled to teach the values and morals she felt was important in the right way. She wanted her children to be respectful, hard working, honest people who knew the value of a dollar. She showed her love through buying a favorite box of cereal, offering to drive friends to a play date, arranging after school activities such as soccer or ballet, or getting Jennifer a tutor when she struggled in school. Bonnie's language of love was through buying things and giving them away. On the night before her passing, Bonnie wrote Jennifer a note and left an old watch out for Jennifer to take because she thought Jennifer would like it. That was Bonnie, she was most happy when she could give someone a gift. As the kids grew and became older, Bonnie returned to work at Express personnel through her contacts with Ralph and Darlys. After a few years of working at Express Bonnie was able to open her own personnel business called Pathways. She owned that business for about ten years before selling it to a friend.

During this time Bonnie and her good friend Shirley Hogle became huge garage sale shoppers. Bonnie would spend her Friday evening looking over the newspaper and planning the most effective and efficient route to maximize their garage sale shopping time. Bonnie was always finding something that someone needed at the various garage sales. Bonnie loved the hunt of finding a good bargain, meeting new people, and the thrill of negotiation. If you peeked Bonnie's interest and she thought she might have a use for you in the future she would ask for a business card. Bonnie had hundreds if not thousands of business cards taped to her day planner. Her kids affectionately called this the Bonnie-net because it was like her internet and the way she managed her ever growing list of people and contacts. Dinner on Saturday nights after a day filled with garage sales always included interesting stories about the deals of the day and the people she had met.

By this time in her life Jennifer had married Matt, Marc had married Julie. So what would an empty nester do with her time? Buy baby clothes of course in the hopes of the ever growing expectation of grandchildren. When the garage sales would wind down for the season, Bonnie would continue her bargain hunting at Deseret Industries. Soon the basement filled with extra large Rubbermaid bins of baby clothes. The labels of the bins would read birth to 3 month girl, birth to 3 month boy, 3-6 month boy winter, 3-6 month boy spring, 3-6 month girl summer, and so on all the way up to age 4. If that wasn't enough there were bins labeled Halloween infant costumes, infant shoes, bibs, baby towels, etc. Of course Bonnie was always excited to share her second hand deals with Jennifer and Jennifer was always left wondering just how many infant Halloween costumes we needed anyway.

Bonnie's dream of becoming a grandmother became a reality in December of 2003 with the birth of Abby. A year later Parker was born to Marc and Julie. In 2006, Anna (named after Bonnie's grandmother) joined Matt and Jennifer's family. Sadly, a year later, in 2007, Ray, Bonnie's husband of 45 years passed away. The large house in Shoreline was a lot for Bonnie to take care of with her own health concerns. In 2010 she sold her house in Shoreline and moved to Highgate assisted living in Vancouver to be close to Matt, Jennifer, and two of her granddaughters.

Of course a new town meant new people to meet, and a renewed excitement over new activities. One of those activities combined several of Bonnie's loves. Fresh produce, a good deal, people to talk with, and a hint of negotiation could all be found at the Salmon Creek farmer's market. Every Thursday Bonnie would attend the farmer's market and man the Highgate table. This is when she earned her title as the Highgate hostess. Bonnie would walk up and down the main walkway of the farmer's market talking to unsuspecting customers. She would ask what they were looking to buy and how much they wanted. When the person would tell her they wanted to buy three pounds of tomatoes, she would say, I have just the stand for you, come right on over here. She would then introduce the newly acquired customer to the merchant and say, I would like you to meet so and so. Now, she is looking to buy 3 pounds of tomatoes and I noticed you competitor is selling tomatoes for a dollar a pound today, so we are wanting to know if you are willing to sell your tomatoes for .90 cents per pound. There was always the look of surprise on the customers face when they realized this little old lady was really a produce shark on a mission to drive prices down. If Jennifer dare book a doctor's appointment or some other engagement on a Thursday, Bonnie wouldn't let Jennifer hear the end of it. There were just some activities that could not be interrupted and the Thursday Salmon Creek farmer's market was just one of those activities.

Another activity that was not to be interrupted was Bingo. Bonnie kept track of her two cards and the cards of others sitting at the same table with her. The bingo prizes offered at Highgate were always fun or simple. Winners could choose to get a candy bar, a bag of nuts, or something more practical, like a box of tissues. Bonnie always went for the practical gift of tissues and because of her many winnings, we now have a lifetime supply of tissues. In fact, Bonnie often joked that boxes of tissues should be given away to mourners at the time of her passing. Whenever you talked with Bonnie about her day, the information always included who won or lost at bingo and if interesting patterns were developing. A good Highgate hostess would keep the activities director aware of fairness and equity in winning or losing at Bingo, after all.

Another one of Bonnie's responsibilities as Highgate hostess was to run pinochle at least twice a week. Bonnie would teach anyone willing to learn her most favorite card game ever but if Bonnie got stuck with the weaker partner, look out, she did not like to lose, especially to newbies. Bonnie had to be reminded more than a few times that the card game was for fun and not to take it too seriously or to be too competitive. Even in Bonnie's later years, her feisty personality was still strong.

Bonnie's congestive heart failure became more and more of a concern this past winter and she spent Christmas in the hospital. She decided to return to her assisted living apartment at the end of December to live out the end of her life with the comfort of her home and friends and family around her. Jennifer cut her work hours in half to be able to spend every afternoon with Bonnie. In the weeks leading up to her passing Bonnie and Jennifer sorted through old pictures, Bonnie was baptized, and the sale of her apartment building in Lynnwood was almost completed. This time together for Bonnie and Jennifer was a blessing for both women as they would laugh and talk and discuss what needed to be done that day. Bonnie would tell Jennifer what she wanted to accomplish and Jennifer would do her best to make those requests a reality from wanting to wear her rings from the safety deposit box one last time, to having Panda Express for lunch, to getting special lotion for her dry itchy skin. In the days before her passing the request was for Cheetoes, jello, and thank you cards to write notes to people who had stopped by and visited or brought flowers. Bonnie passed away peacefully in her sleep the morning of February 28th, 2014. Bonnie is survived by her older brother Eddie, her son Marc, and daughter Jennifer, Son-in-law Matt, and her three grandchildren Abby, Parker, and Anna.