Inga Judith Hemming

Born November 7, 1928, just shy of 100! Oh, the things she has seen in her lifetime! Born in Motala, Sweden to Karin Maria Pihl and Herman Georg Alden she grew up loving nature and riding her bicycle. She met the love of her life at a dance in Skansen, Sigvard Karl Folke Hemming, a handsome black-haired, blue-eyed Aerospace Engineer for SAAB. They were married a couple of years later on October 29, 1955. The soon moved to Ealing, London to study English and work. Soon the call from their good friends came to join them in Chicago! They had just adopted a son, Thomas U. Hemming. They went to Chicago and didn’t much care for it there. They went back to Sweden for a visit but returned to Chicago when Boeing came to recruit. Sig was hired and the little family moved to Seattle in 1962 right during the World’s Fair! In 1967 they adopted their daughter, Christina M. (Hemming) Murphy and their little family was complete. They moved to Kirkland, WA and attended Holy Spirit Lutheran Church. Soon after, they moved to Bellevue to have a little more house and yard for the kids. Here they settled into church at Cross of Christ Lutheran. Sig continued to work at Boeing until he retired almost 30 years later! They loved dinner parties and held many at their home as well as visiting friends. Inga was an amazing homemaker and would volunteer at the various schools that her children attended at the cafeteria or library. She loved to take classes in cake decorating, language, computers, sewing, or whatever the latest fun trend was! She was active in the Girl Scout Troup when Christina was in it. She loved to read and travel most of all! She traveled to Sweden frequently with the children and family as they were the only ones in the family not living in Sweden. Sadly, she lost the love of her life, Sig, to cancer shortly after he retired. Which broke her heart. He was the only one for her until death. I know he was the first one to guide her up to heaven in the end.

Inga traveled the world with senior tour groups and made many friends everywhere she went! Soon the old house in Bellevue grew too big and she found a great little one-level home in the quieter Trilogy neighborhood on Redmond Ridge. She was very social, and if you were even just in the line at the grocery store, she would talk to you. Inga made new friends, but also really cherished her lifelong friends! Checking up on them with a phone call or letter regularly! Cards and gifts from her friends were cherished as well and after her passing, we discovered nearly every card, letter, and photo neatly bound together in little stacks or in a beautiful album. Inca lived a good, long life and was so lucky to have amazing health most of her years. Living alone in her house and even driving around Redmond, Seattle and beyond up until a month before her passing! She also finally received her FIRST speeding ticket at age 95! She was a meticulous housekeeper and kept her Scandinavian-styled home so spotless you could eat off the beautiful wood floors at any time. Like one of her best friends said when we talked after her passing, “A world without Inga just doesn’t seem right!” It sure doesn’t feel right to us. We will all feel a little lost without this amazing Matriarch in our lives. Always putting others ahead of herself and making sure they were safe and well fed.

Inga is preceded in death by her mother, father, sister Gunnel Astrom, Husband Sigvard Hemming. Inga is survived by her son Thomas Hemming, daughter Christina (Hemming) Murphy (James Murphy), grandson Karl Ball, step-granddaughter Heather Mariscal, Kendra Murphy, great grandchildren: Zachary High, Holly Solomon, Ashley Mariscal, and Zachary Mariscal.