Shirley Joan Rasmussen

Shirley Joan (pronounced JoAnn--it's a North Dakota thing) Lundh was born on December 9, 1928 at her parents' home in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. She was the youngest of four children, having two older brothers and a sister. Her family called her "Joan" or "Tootsie" all her life. She only began going by Shirley when she started school, and found that there were a dozen other little girls going by the name of Joanne or something similar, so she went with Shirley, of which there were only 8 others. She had many friends as a child, and all of them remained so for her whole life. All of her daughters were named for her friends. She remained in close touch with her best friend, Barbara Welsh until the end, more than 75years.

It was in the third grade that she met Ray Rasmussen, newly arrived in Robbinsdale from South Minneapolis. She was profoundly indifferent to him until about seventh grade, when her indifference changed to total disgust. But the ways of the heart are nothing if not mysterious, and she and Ray began dating in their senior year of high school and were married a year after graduation. Ray joined the US Army, and when he was stationed in El Paso, Texas. Shirley went to join him along with Billy, the first of eight babies. It should be mentioned here that she was an interesting mix of tomboy, lettering in sports in spite of her chronic asthma, and girly-girl, playing with dolls and adoring babies. As the children grew older, she entertained them with lots of music of all kinds; classical, hymns, big band swing, show tunes. The first song she sang to us was "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine". She had a natural ability to harmonize to anything we sang together, but the only thing she could play on the piano was "Whispering".

She moved to Seattle when Ray took a job with Boeing in 1966. She was a charter member of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Alderwood Manor, Washington in 1967, but transferred to Bethesda Lutheran Church in 1983. While shopping at Lake Forest Park Mall in the late 1960's, she met local artist Florence Sibley. She and Ms. Sibley seemed to be apples from the same tree, and became friends. On Shirley's frequent trips back to visit her family in Minnesota, she would take some of the paintings with her to sell to friends and family. One of Florence's paintings was a gift to Shirley and Ray for their 50th Anniversary in 1998.

All the while her children were young, Shirley was a stay-at-home Mom, but when the youngest boys were in junior high school, she began working as a housekeeper at Arden Nursing Home, then at Crista Senior Community. She stopped working when Ray retired in 1992, hoping to spend time doing whatever they chose for as long as they chose. But on Easter Sunday of 1993, she felt something "pop" in her back as she was getting dressed, and it never healed. By the end of the summer she was unable to walk, and went into severe diabetic neuropathy and amyotrophy, and she spent the rest of her days in a wheelchair. Still, she made a trip to Minnesota for a family reunion, and one to Disneyland to have her picture taken with Minnie Mouse. She continued to adore her grandchildren and great grandchildren and became "Grandma" to all the kids in the neighborhood to boot. When care at home became too difficult, she made the choice to go to Bethany nursing home, and decided to make the best of the situation by taking part and keeping active. She became an unofficial advocate for all the patients making sure they were all well-cared-for. Still the mom at heart! By this spring, however, her illness was taking its toll, and her body was shutting down. She left us on April 23rd as Bill sang "you are my sunshine, my only sunshine" to her. She and her sister are undoubtedly laughing, singing and working the daily crossword puzzles in Heaven. Bet there are kids around, too.