Adele Merati

Adele Jalali Merati RN was born in Tabriz, Iran February 3, 1928 to Masoumeh Mehrparvar and Rabi Jalali. She was the third of 5 children and spent her childhood in both in Tabriz as well as Julfa. She excelled in school, supported by her loving and progressive parents – she traveled to Europe and all over Iran as independent and educated woman in the 1950s and 1960s. Adele trained as a nurse and worked at the National Oil Company Hospital in Abadan, Iran. She rose in rank and responsibility and developed an unbreakable circle of friends during that time. During this exciting time in her professional life she met Jay Merati, MD , the house surgeon at the NOIC hospital. They grew close and were married January 9, 1964. Adele supported Jay’s vision to move to the United States in 1965, first to Chicago, then Los Angeles, Seattle, London, and back to Seattle before raising the two children, Nazila and Al in Yarrow Point and Medina. Adele was active in the Overlake Service League and was the connecter and social catalyst for many, teaching cooking classes and bringing people together. Her and her close friends maintained a strong network of Iranian-American families in the Seattle area at a time when these connections were harder to make and maintain. No summer or thanksgiving or Norooz was without a welcoming family and friends gathering with 30, 40, 50 and even up to 100 in attendance. She was the center of it all.

In 1996, Jay and Adele moved to La Jolla for some of the best years of their lives. They built a dream home overlooking the Paciific and continued the journey of life in good health and surrounded by friend and family living nearby – many from that unbreakable circle of nursing friends that bonded 30 years before.

After 12 great years in La Jolla, Adele and Jay moved back to Seattle to be with family, welcoming Jenny and Tiffany to the family and celebrating the birth of her grandchildren, the absolute joy of her life, Solomon Peter Merati in 2009 and her namesake Rose Adele Merati in 2013. Her sharp wit and incredible memory were a gift to us all; she could read people from anywhere in the room and taught all of us forgiveness, patience, and understanding.

The final years were full of lengthy phone calls and visits with friends, hugs from the grandchildren, and a few magical trips to Macy’s and Whidbey Island.

She is survived by her loving husband of 58 years, Jay Merati MD, her children (Nazila Merati and Al Merati), her beloved grandchildren Solomon Peter Merati and Rose Adele Merati, and her brothers Iraj Jalali (Kirkland, WA) and Bijan Jalali (Kaiserslautern, Germany) and their families.