Diane Marie Safstrom

Diane Marie Gordon Safstrom passed peacefully from this earth to eternal Paradise on the morning of January 28th. She was the first born of Tom and Linda Gordon, followed a few minutes later by her twin brother Murray. Brother Steve arrived 5 years later followed by sister Janet 1½ years after Steve.

Diane was born in Los Angeles, with the family returning seven years later to Everett where her parents had met at Everett High School. Fatefully, the family moved in across the street from the Safstrom family.

Their south Forest Park neighborhood was teeming with children with up to 40 kids out to play together each day. It was a wonderful childhood experience for all. The Gordon and Safstrom kids took ski lessons at Stevens Pass and became accomplished snow skiers and later water skiers.

At Everett High, she was an outstanding student, a member of Rainbow Girls where she became Worthy Advisor (President), was active in SeaGals, the Drill Team, and Varsity Volleyball. She attended Everett Community College for one year before transferring to Washington State University where she discovered computer science. She received her BA from Western Washington University and launched into a computer programming/system analyst career at GTE.

She rededicated her life as a Christian while in Bellingham, this becoming a strong lifelong commitment.

Three years after college graduation, her childhood friend Fred Safstrom called out of the blue. They went out to dinner the Friday after Thanksgiving 1979, became engaged on Christmas Eve and married on June 7, 1980. They raised three marvelous children – Leah, David and John. Each of them is thriving and were the joy of Diane’s life. Diane had four grandchildren: Ben, Anne-Marie, Nora, and Travis. In addition, Leah’s partner brought three wonderful children, Riley, Sawyer and Finley into the family.

With her three children at Whittier Elementary, she was deeply engaged, including leading the establishment of a mandatory school uniform policy, and leading afterschool clubs for Pokémon and Chess. For her efforts, she was awarded the highly regarded Golden Acorn award.

Diane was a fierce warrior in her cancer battle. Her mother passed from Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) at age 59, and Diane was diagnosed with her first Breast Cancer at age 38. She chose to undergo Radical Double Mastectomy with the hope that she would survive

long enough to raise her children. Cancer returned with Melanoma at age 49, MBC at age 51, Thymic Cancer at age 56 and Lung Cancer at age 63. All but the MBC were successfully addressed by skilled surgeons. Diane went through countless rounds of treatment over those years, holding back the Stage 4 MBC for 20 years! She was so grateful for her Oncologists, Assistants, Nurses and staff that participated in her treatments. Her battle and survival story is an inspiration to many. She loved life and was highly disciplined in doing everything she could to continue living, from her daily prayer walks accompanied by her Golden Retrievers on Grand Avenue, to healthy eating and drinking.

A graveside service will be held at Evergreen Cemetery at 4504 Broadway Ave., 2:00pm on Friday, February 6th. Friends of the family are invited to attend.

Memorial gifts may be made to Susan G Komen for the Cure or Housing Hope.

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