Gloria Marie Kotjan

Gloria Marie Kotjan (Kmak), of Lynnwood, Washington, passed away July 31, 2023 at the age of 69 from colon cancer. She was born in Michigan City, Indiana on December 13, 1953, to the late Chester and Bernice Kmak.

Gloria was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her husband, Robert (Bob) Kotjan. Together they had two children and seven grandchildren. Her daughter, April Goodnight, spouse Dustin and their children Ella, Elias and Ethan and son Bryan Kotjan, spouse Hannah and their children Lincoln, Zeke, Abigail and Lillian. Gloria was the middle of nine children, the late Chester Kmak, Michael Kmak and Stanley Kmak and she is survived by her sisters Dorothy Tomlin, Francine Ryann and Christine Force and her brothers Andy Kmak and Paul Kmak. She is also survived by many nieces and nephews.

Gloria grew up in Michigan City, Indiana. She attended Queen of All Saints Catholic School and St. Stanislaus for K-8th grade. She graduated from Elston High School in the year 1972. She always said she loved going to Catholic school and wearing a uniform. She spent much of her childhood swimming locally at the beaches of Lake Michigan. In her late teens she worked doing admissions at the local zoo, as a sales clerk at a local department store and also as an office assistant at a medical clinic. In 1973 at the age of 19, she moved to Great Falls, Montana. She was a waitress at Sambo’s Restaurant. After a winter there, she moved with a friend out to Washington State. She worked at the local Sambo’s Restaurant in north Seattle for several years. She eventually met her husband Bob there, who came in as a customer a few times. She told her co-worker, “I really like that guy.” They were married on Thanksgiving of 1980 and had been married for 42 years. They had their daughter, April in 1985 and their son, Bryan in 1987.

In her 20s, some of the places that Gloria worked at were as a waitress at Sambo’s Restaurant, a sales clerk at Lamonts department store in Seattle, B. Dalton Bookstore, as a marketing assistant at Holland America Westours in Seattle and for a short time ran a dog sitting business out of their home. In her 30s, Gloria ran a daycare at their home for five years. In her 40s, she worked holidays at the local See’s Chocolate shop. While raising their children, Gloria stayed at home with them. She was a very involved parent and volunteered regularly in their classrooms and at school sporting events and drove her children endless hours to school, lessons and practices. During all these years, she developed a love for education and was regularly taking a college class at the local community colleges. She then later continued on in working towards degrees in higher education. She enjoyed hosting Japanese exchange students at their home from various organizations over the years. In her 60s, she often volunteered at her local church. She also put in a lot of time these last several designing, decorating and maintaining their two vacation rental properties.

Gloria was constantly pursuing education and had a variety of interests to study. She always said that she thought it was very important to keep your mind active and growing. She had several certifications and degrees. These ranged from being a Certified Travel Agent from SST Travel School in 1979, a Certificate in Medical Assisting from Edmonds Community College in 1984 (age 30), an Associate of General Studies Degree from both Everett Community College and Edmonds Community College in 1997 (at the age of 43, her guidance counselor told her she needed to narrow down her focus and move forward after being 23 courses over the required amount for an associates degree!), an Associate of Technical Arts Degree in Travel and Tourism from Edmonds Community College in 1997 (age 43), a Bachelor of Arts in Human Development from Washington State University in 2003 (age 49), a Masters of Science in Human Services with a specialization in Counseling Studies from Capella University in 2009 (age 55) and a Masters of Science in Psychology from Capella University in 2014 (age 60). She excelled in her studies and often graduated with honors. She also completed the coursework for a career diploma to become a Certified Wedding Planner (CWP) from Penn Foster in 2012 and continued on yearly as a member of the Association of Bridal Consultants (ABC). In her 60s, she had a particular interest in counseling. She completed dozens of courses through Light University to become certified in areas of biblical counseling, life coaching, crisis response, marriage & family and mental health coaching. She was a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) and the International Christian Coaching Association (ICCA). She enjoyed going to local counseling conferences and she and Bob would drive to Nashville every other year for the AACC World Conference at the Opryland Hotel. She was working on getting her certification in biblical counseling from the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) at the time of her passing.

Gloria had many interests and passions. She loved to travel. In her early 20s, she went all over Europe for six weeks by herself. She also spent much of her early years traveling the United States by Greyhound Bus or by Amtrak. She even wanted to become a flight attendant at one point and later wanted to be a travel agent. She and Bob drove across the country at least 35 times, even driving from Seattle to Key West, FL on multiple occasions. She was always the driver and had the stamina to drive for many hours. She visited every state in the United States, many multiple times. She had a knack for finding sites that were off the beaten path. She loved history and visiting historical places, in particular old mansions, Victorian homes, churches, castles, lighthouses, alligator swamps, battlegrounds, Civil War sites, ghost towns, national parks, gardens, and hotels and homes from famous architects. She would say, “Thank God for the rich because they left us these beautiful mansions to visit.” She dreamed of visiting beaches and islands all over the country. She loved both lakes and the oceans. She would swim for hours in both pools and beaches while on their vacations. When swimming in Lake Michigan (where she swam daily when visiting her hometown) she would leave Bob wondering if he should call 911 as she would be nowhere in sight as the sun went down and the lake became too dark to see. She had fun finding local restaurants, dessert and chocolate shops to try. She was always collecting little souvenirs as gifts for her family and eclectic food product gifts. Some of her favorite destinations that she visited on many road trips were the New England states and the South, in particular, Charleston, SC. Gloria was the ultimate trip planner for her family and always came up with amazing trip ideas to plan for everyone to go on together.

Gloria was a connoisseur of fine chocolates and made it a goal to discover fine chocolate stores anywhere she went. She was well known at her local chocolate shops. Some of her favorites were Fran’s Chocolates, Boehm’s, See’s Candies and Schocolat in Leavenworth. She was also a foodie and liked to discover the best restaurants. She always asked for a ton of lemons for her water and often modified her orders to the point it was embarrassing for her family! She enjoyed a variety of restaurants from seafood, steak, Mexican, Italian, Thai, BBQ, French and more. She loved her dogs and until the last couple of years, always had one. She made it a habit to make sure she walked daily, often walking for miles in the local cemetery or at Green Lake in Seattle. When her dogs got older she would push them in a stroller on her walks. She loved walking so much that she didn’t get her drivers license until her mid 20s because she happily wanted to walk everywhere and didn’t mind walking several miles to work. In the warmer months, she would spend hours upon hours swimming in her backyard pool. Some things she enjoyed doing on the weekends were going to local farmers markets, art festivals, day trips, drives up to Chuckanut Drive and stopping to eat along the way, day trips around WA, finding new bakeries and dessert shops in surrounding cities, spending time with her grandchildren and so much more.

She had many magazine subscriptions that she enjoyed reading. Some were Eating Well, Midwest Living, Country Living, Sunset Living, Yankee Magazine and Coastal Living. She daily watched the 700 Club on TV and enjoyed various TV shows related to home makeovers, real estate, travel, romance, history, crime and investigation.

She was a woman of Christian faith and loved Jesus. She went to a weekly women's Bible study group at her church. She was always praying for her family and friends and always giving God the credit and thanking Him for answered prayers. She was currently on the 19th time of reading the entire Bible. Her family always remembers her saying this prayer before meals, “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.” She loved her country. Her father was a POW in WWII and she took it very seriously to honor those Americans who served. She was a very honest woman, trustworthy and always kept her word. So many have said how much they remember her for her kindness, positive attitude, generosity, sense of humor and her laughter. She always tried to make those around her feel comfortable and included. She was very determined and persistent.

Throughout her life, Gloria always made it a priority to celebrate everything, both big and small, from birthdays, marriages, new babies, someone’s new job or promotion, graduations, a golden birthday, first day of school, a grand opening, anniversaries, retirement, a lost tooth, passing a test, learning to ride a bike, etc. She would often send out text reminders to her immediate family so they would remember to wish various family members or friends a happy birthday. She made others feel special, celebrated, appreciated and cared for. She absolutely loved going to weddings, showers and parties and was always so excited when she received an invite. She was always the first to have an amazing cake ordered for any reason. It was fun for her to find and try new bakeries and dessert shops. Everyone who knew her, knew she was always on a mission to find the best cake. She loved ordering and giving beautiful flower arrangements and floral wreaths. Her personal favorites were lilacs in the Spring and dahlias in the Fall and a bouquet of red roses mixed with pink carnations. She loved bright colors and her favorites were tangerine orange, pink, rhodolite (merlot color) and seafoam green. She loved perfumes. Her favorite scents were anything citrus, lemon, orange, grapefruit and she loved the plumeria scent. She loved Victorian patterns and lace. She wrote letters and text messages with lots of exclamation marks and emojis. She signed her notes “luv” and dotted the “i” in our names with a heart.

Holidays and traditions were very important to her. She loved sending flowers and bringing chocolates to her family on Valentine's Day, going to St. Patrick’s Day events at Shawn O’Donnell’s in Everett, doing easter egg hunts for her children and later her grandchildren, going to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in the spring, going to the Memorial Day ceremony at the local cemetery, going to parades and watching great fireworks for July 4th, going to pumpkin patches in the Fall, seeing her children and later her grandchildren dressed up for Halloween, going along for trick-or-treating, hosting lovely Thanksgiving feasts, sending her children beautiful wreaths for the Christmas season, giving yearly ornaments, buying the girls in the family fancy Christmas dresses, looking at Christmas lights, going to the annual Bronn Journey (harp) Christmas concert, watching the Nutcracker, yearly Santa photos, Christmas Eve church service, Chinese food for dinner on Christmas Eve and so much more.

Over the years, she enjoyed going to musicals, operas, plays and concerts. She loved going to see movies at the movie theater and enjoyed going by herself often almost weekly. Her top three favorite movies were Gone with the Wind, Jaws and Splendor in the Grass. A fun fact is that the first concert that Gloria ever went to, was also the same band she saw for her last concert about 50 years later! Her first concert was seeing the Beach Boys playing locally at the University of Notre Dame and she and Bob went and saw them play last year at the Puyallup Fair for his 70th birthday. They enjoyed going to concerts over the years and some of the groups they saw in concert were Journey, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Brown, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, John Mellencamp, Elton John and Billy Joel. Gloria also wanted to be a spectator of any major historical sporting event. She was happy to go by herself, just as long as she could be there. Even if she didn’t understand how the sport was played, she wanted to be a part of the celebration and excitement. She and Bob drove to Santa Clara, CA for the Super Bowl game in 2016. They went to the Indy 500 in 2019 and to the Sounders MLS championship game that same year. She even sat through all 18 innings by herself at the final Mariners playoff game last October 2022. She was planning on going to the Kentucky Derby and Daytona 500 this year until she became ill.

Gloria had an extremely generous heart and was always wanting to bless those in need, giving to her family, friends and various organizations. She was great at gift giving and could figure out exactly what to give someone. She blessed the lives of many people that knew her. She loved spending time at her two investment rental properties, Seabrook on the Washington coast and the Lookout at Lake Chelan. She was generous with the homes and often offered them for others to enjoy as well and donated vacations at them to auctions to raise funds for Christian schools attended by her children and grandchildren. 

For the last eight years, her main joy was being a Grandma. Her grandchildren ranged in age from newborn to eight years old. They called her “Grandma Goya” and loved her dearly. They asked daily to spend time with her and squealed with delight when they would see her. She loved to go to the local zoo or aquarium with them, to take them shopping at the mall for back to school clothes or for any reason, to Disney on Ice shows, to see the Nutcracker around Christmas, out to eat at restaurants, trips to Disneyland, to send them postcards from her travels and so much more. She always brought them balloons for special occasions and lots of gifts and little treats.

Gloria made life so very special for those around her and always said the expression, “Life is good.” She truly was one of a kind. She was so loved by many and will be greatly missed.

A memorial service and celebration of life reception will be held on Saturday, October 14th, 11AM at Northlake Christian Church in Bothell, WA.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.floralhillslynnwood.com for the Kotjan family.