Mary Irene McKay

Mary will always be remembered as a gift to our family and friends. Mom was a special mom, a grandma, a sister, a sister in law, an aunt, a friend, a volunteer and a caregiver to many in need.

Mary Irene Todd was born January 8, 1938 at home in Akeley Minnesota to Robert and Ruth Todd. The Todd family moved to Orcas Island when mom was one years old. Mom was blessed with a baby brother Jerry on January 9, 1945. Mom was blessed with the large family that Grandpa Robert Todd had and Grandma Ruth Resch and her family and Grandpa John Resch and his three sons and one daughter. When mom graduated from Nellie S Milton school and moved off of the island to find work in Seattle she worked for a short time at Marsch McLennan and Cosgrove insurance company.

Mom met Seafair pirate Jim McKay at a party and she said he was the one she would marry. This occurred in September 1959.

Jim was a gift to the Todd and Resch families and mom was welcomed into the Harold and Melba McKay family and was welcomed by dad's sisters and brothers. Marion, Margaret, Joe, Alan and Sandy.

Jr and mom and dad found their forever home in Kirkland. The Kirkland home needed one more resident and that was me and I arrived in 1962. Jr and I comment often that we were very blessed to live in a community of wonderful people that this neighborhood provided.

Dad's passion was anything to do with cars. Dad originally worked at Motor Specialty and at some point mom and Dad bought the store dad worked at called Hill Auto Parts. Mom was the bookkeeper there.

Mom and Dad took a cruise or two and flew to different parts of the world. Dad and mom and Jr loved car racing so a trip to California was a fun time for them. As a family we did many car rides on the weekends and also longer trips to Central Oregon or Missouri. We met our old neighbors the Gildays in Denver and the Ballwegs. A car ride to Portland for dinner was not uncommon either. We enjoyed many trips to Juniper Beach on Camano Island with the Fosse family. Who doesn't love walking on a beach and wading in the water.

Our Kirkland forever home included a lot of kids for us to play with and a quality group of parents. Everyone offered assistance when possible. We lived next door to the Fosse family. Lisa, Curt, Jr and I grew up together and Ron and Linda were people we respected and we felt like they were our parents to. The builder of their home told mom that there would not be any other houses behind them but that was not true. We were very grateful to meet our new backyard neighbors the Ballweg's and the Gilday's. Dad kept everyone's cars working and our neighbors helped us with things we did not know how to fix. We had fun as kids and we helped with chores outside. I remember that shoveling manure for the garden was stinky. Mom loved her flowers, shrubs, plants and trees and her vegetable garden and dad loved to keep the yard green and beautiful.

As time when on the Fosse and McKay yards grew to be full of beautiful colors and flowers. It was very common for mom and Linda to survey their flower beds, get starts from each other and decide they needed something more. When we lost dad in 2000 mom decided she needed more flowerbed space and cut out more grass. I have no way of knowing how many trips were taken to local nursery's to bring more life to the flowerbeds of the Fosse and McKay homes.

We will eternally grateful for the love and support given to mom by all of the Fosse family after dad passed away.

Mom found that she needed to learn how to drive and so she went to driving school and got her license. She was invited to join a ladies bowling team and met Dave and Marilyn Niehaus. I watched mom bowl and she had quite the style as she delivered her redish pink ball down the lane. Mom joined me annually for a fundraiser bowling event in Tacoma to support the Y and we had a great time. Mom collected her friends for coffee and helped drive them to places they needed to go to. Mom went on van rides with the senior center, had coffee with her friends, did deep water aerobics at Juanita High School and had a wonderful time with the Bothell Senior Center attic sale. She travelled with family, and her friend Ruth Smit and mom and I managed to get ourselves to Belgium, France and London without any technology. Mom also continued her friendships and attended meetings with the Retractable car club that mom and dad were a part of for so many years. Mom drove herself to Renton many times and never touched the freeway. Mom painted her own house except for the high parts.

Many, many, many years ago mom became a part of the CampFire Girls program. She was a volunteer at the Northgate office later in life, took a trip or two to Camp Sealth and provided a garage to house mints, roca and clusters as a distributor for the annual candy sale for many years. Mom became a part of the Mary Ann Bothell Guild of Seattle Children's at the suggestion of her Campfire friends. Since mom had such a busy social life it was best to call after 7:00pm to find her at home.

Mom and her stuff moved to Aegis Living room 208 in October of 2020 after she sold her home. She wanted to be near her old neighborhood and she had been to this Aegis in the past to visit family and friends. She was welcomed with open arms and was a gift to the staff who loved her dearly. The staff was having challenges getting her personal computer to access the internet. By the way she was the only one with a personal computer, a cpap machine, an oxygen machine and could operate a cell phone and was their resident that participated in everything. Mom's computer was older and it did not have wifi capabilities and staff at Aegis asked me to buy mom a new PC. I pushed a few buttons and amazon delivered it and mom was attached to her email again. It was our cousin Wesley that outfitted with her first desktop computer after dad had passed away. Room 208 had a big window looking out to the world on the north side of the building. Mom had a lengthy windowsill where she had room for her plants, her art work, her books, pictures and cards. She enjoyed seeing the stream outside her window and seeing how it changed over the years with the seasons. She would tell me the stream was running fast at times or not much going on. Mom moved to an adult family home on 7/27/24. A very sad day for us and the staff at Aegis.

A short time ago I was visiting mom and I asked what channel Hallmark was on. She said she did not know but all I had to do was push a button on the remote and say Hallmark Channel. My mom had grown leaps and bounds in her life. We used the simple trouble shooting suggestion of having mom unplug the power to her computer to fix a weird situation. She was so grateful for the simple role she played in getting her computer working again. Speaking for myself I was happy to not be challenged by a difficult computer problem. I know many times I had to answer her question which was why did this happen and I had to reply with I don't know why it happened.

When mom decided to not go back to the hospital after three lengthy stays their we received a lot of support from Evergreen Hospice and they realized how special mom was. She was not going to stop doing her normal routine of jigsaw puzzles in the living room, crossword puzzles, reading, socializing, talking on the phone, making her bed, going to the dining room for meals, independently taking her own showers, watering her plants, enjoying visitors, 7 little words, and spending time on her computer. She had a big window in her room looking out towards the flowers. She watched the neighbors walk themselves or their children or their dogs outside her window. Mom reminded me that in 1965 or so mom, dad, Linda and Ron came to Kingsgate to see the neighborhood and at that time there were very few houses.

Mom and I went to the library close by after I remembered it was there and they reactivated her card that had been unused for 50-60 years. We also found a local neighborhood jigsaw puzzle library and borrowed puzzles and returned them.

We are very lucky to have been surrounded by so many quality people for our entire lives. We are very grateful that Mary and Jim were are parents and set good examples for us. We can enjoy the memories of Orcas Island family gatherings with our grandparents and friends and we can make new memories on The Rock with Uncle Jerry, Aunt Linda, Tracy, Bobbie, Darby, Eros, Ed, Eddie and Cooper. There is such a peace of mind that you experience when you walk off the ferry and are greeted by our Orcas family.

I hope that in between the sad moments that you experience, as you reach for your tissues, that you can also be reminded about all of the good times that you shared with our parents.

Family and friends are everything and we experienced the best of the best.

We will have a get together in July in the Longview area to celebrate our mom and her accomplishments and play our favorite rummy card game.