Valeri Ritchie-Vatne

Valeri Ritchie-Vatne, mother, daughter, sister, aunt and friend, lost her courageous yearlong battle to pancreatic cancer and passed away at her home surrounded by her daughter, Tami, loved ones and her faithful dogs and cats on August 26, 2013. She was 56 years old. Val was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on January 28, 1957. She was a beautiful little baby and the apple of her dad’s eye, his little girl, she loved to eat his “toad sandwiches”. She lived her early years in Salt Lake City, Utah, Fort Benning Georgia, Fort Bragg North Carolina, California and Colorado. She moved with her family to Kent, Washington in 1968 where she graduated from Kentridge High School in 1975. She went on to graduate from Pierce College while raising and caring for her daughter. Val worked for the Washington State Department of Corrections until her death.

Valeri loved to grow anything. She had such a green thumb and found solitude in her garden. She grew everything from tomato plants in her childhood bedroom in Kent, to meticulously tending to her garden at the “Pea Patch” in downtown Kent in the 70’s. She loved that garden and would go downtown almost daily to her “patch” to weed and water. She loved to watch her garden grow. She always had a garden wherever she lived and to the very end her favorite place to be and feel peace was on her porch at home in Puyallup enjoying watching her tomato, blueberry, raspberry and Jasmine plants grow and bloom while her favorite hummingbirds enjoyed the nectar she prepared.

Val loved her animals. We know she was welcomed in heaven by her favorites, Auggie Doggy, Buddy and Brandy. They were patiently waiting for you Val. We are sure they are giving you lots of doggie kisses and smothering you with love.

Val was preceded in death by her Husband Michael Vatne who lost his fight to MS in 2004. Val lovingly and selflessly took such good care of him for so many years and never uttered a word of complaint. She is also preceded in death by her Mother, Beverly Joy Hawley Ritchie, who passed away in 1981 after her battle with cancer at the age of 49.

Surviving Valeri is her loving daughter Tamira Dawn Ritchie-Vatne and her first granddaughter, due in January. Tami was Val’s world and the reason she fought her fierce fight against cancer to the very end. Her greatest joy in life was raising her daughter. She is also survived by her Father, Earl Don Lee Ritchie and Stepmother Peggy Ritchie, Sister Jill Ritchie Davis and Husband Jeff Davis, Brother James Hawley Ritchie and Wife Michelle Ritchie, Niece and nephews, Lyndsey DeLuca, Branden DeLuca and Austin Freeman, Mother and Father In-Law Marian and Ronald Vatne and many, many other family and friends. Her grand-dogs, Raimy and Tea and her cats, especially Cookie, will miss her too. A special thank you to her friend Becky Johnson and to Hospice for your care and support in her final days. Although we know your pain has gone, the thought of this will never fully fill the hole you will leave in all of our lives.

A service will be held on September 7th at 2pm at Powers Funeral Home in Puyallup followed by a Celebration of her life at Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church also in Puyallup.