Leslie Edwardsen Hill

AN INTRODUCTION:

Leslie Hill of Sammamish, Washington passed away peacefully while holding the hands of her son, Christopher, and her husband, Edward, the morning of November 6th, 2025. Earlier during the previous evening Chris had played ukulele and sung to Leslie her favorite songs from the movie “The Sound of Music.” One of her favorite life events had been traveling to Austria in college as part of an exchange program. While there she was able to be at the places where the movie was actually filmed. Apparently she even snuck into the Nonnberg Abbey where the scenes involving Maria Von Trap’s convent sisters were filmed! Chris singing Leslie those songs was a fitting and beautiful final serenade to a well lived life of love and service.

Child advocate Mr. Rogers used to say “Look for the helpers.” We had many helpers along the way to give us strength as we supported my mother with various health issues in recent years. The rest of Leslie’s life story will continue below but first we’d like to thank these helpers!

THANKS TO THE HELPERS:

Christopher and Edward want to thank the Doctors, Nurses, and staff of Evergreen Hospital. They gave Leslie truly outstanding care and showed great respect and compassion as they tried everything they could to restore her health. She stayed feisty until the end. When people at the hospital asked “how she was” she would reply sarcastically with, “I’m alive.” We believe that in conscious soul and spirit she lives on still. We’d like to especially thank: nurses Sarah, Kristen, Sophia, Ariel, and Nurse’s Tech’s S.J. and Diane. We’d also like to thank Dr. Hines, Dr. Lee, Dr. Ward, Dr. Lamba and Dr. Mena. We thank evergreen chaplain Rachael for gentle advice on grieving.

We also want to thank Leslie’s long time Kidney Specialist Dr. Dooley for helping Leslie to be as healthy as possible in the last five years. She is an excellent doctor and listener and treats her patients with great respect. We’d like to thank Leslie’s team at Northwest Dialysis Center for their kindness and ongoing expert care. They treated her and us like family. Thanks especially to Lani, Ling, Bing, Al, Ruby and Leslie’s nutritionist.

We’d also like to thank her diabetes pharmacy specialist Anum Rizvi. Anum helped Leslie effectively manage her diabetes in as easy a way as possible, needing only weekly medication. This simple medication regimen added significantly to Leslie’s quality of life. Anum was also the first to realize that Leslie might have a life threatening condition five and a half years ago that required hospitalization. Anum was correct. This realization and treatment during hospitalization allowed Leslie to live for five and a half more enjoyable years! We’d also like to thank Dr. MacInnes and his staff in Sammamish, especially Ellie for help in guiding my Mom towards getting help at that time. Also of course for giving her excellent dental treatment for many years!

We’d like to thank Huda, Jamshid, Amrin and all the staff at Cascade Dental Specialists for their support of Leslie and our family throughout the years and for the card, notes and condolence flowers. It especially meant a lot to my mom to win their office’s mothers day gift drawing several years ago!

We’d like to thank Leslie’s volunteer transportation drivers John, Pat, Bill, Debbie, Cynthia and Lorena. Leslie loved talking with them on the way to and from dialysis.

From the Timberline Community we’d like to thank John and Kathe for their concern, support and flowers. Also Dorothy thank you for your condolences and for bringing us food after Leslie passed! Thank you to Hauming, Phocus and Jehanne for your concern and support. Thanks to “Timberline Alumni” Noel and Carol for your condolences.

We’d also like to thank all of Chris’s friends who helped get Leslie and Ed’s house organized and fitted with safety enhancements several years ago. Enhancements were added such as grab bars and extra railings. Leslie truly enjoyed living safely in her home after the organization and enhancements. Special thanks to the core team Nikki, Chris, Shania, Levon, Luke, Jean and Penny. Thanks to Shania for organizing time period specific and beautiful photo albums!

For recent energy and prayers much thanks to Erik H, Amy L., Todd and Heather, Hayden, Levon, Brian G., Andy and Katie, Krista, Direak, Lisa K, Evan F., Brent, Julie LaFollette and Brandon B. Several years ago Brandon offered to donate a kidney to Leslie as well…thank you Brandon! Thanks to Nikki and Chris for positive thoughts and offering any help needed. Thanks to Rachael S. for sending positive thoughts and for reaching out in concern.

Thanks to Hayden for his hand delivered get well card and for consistently checking in to see how Leslie was doing. Thanks to Leslie’s sister Joannie and Leslie’s friends at hands for living therapy who sent flowers to her while she was in and out of the hospital. She loved the flowers and they cheered her up! Also thank you for kind moral support from Jennie, Julie, Amy and Lizzy LaFollette, Solveig and Mary Anne. Thanks to Yeshi and Argaw for flowers, their moral support, prayers and always checking in to see how Leslie was doing. Thanks to everyone else who sent positive energy and prayers, including Chris’s students/parents and those alerted to Leslie’s condition on social media.

Thanks to Melanie for Reiki healing work the day of Leslie’s surgery, friendship and support.

Thank you to everyone who sent us condolences, flowers, cards and comfort food after her passing. John and Kathe, Krista, Robbie, Scottie, Joannie, Huda and Jamshid, Lisa, Todd and Kristin from the Hill family. Thanks to Joe and Evan Edwardsen for their care and concern.

Thanks to Kim and her excellent staff at the Marriott hotel in Redmond who treated Ed and Leslie like family when they had an extended stay there during their house renovation. Thanks for the beautiful condolence card and notes!

Thank you to caregiver Krista who greatly enhanced my mother’s and our lives for years with your loving, wise presence and friendship. Krista took Leslie for walks, made her meals, told jokes with her and gave her all kinds of necessary personal care. Thank you caregiver Tabitha for your steadfast, kind help in recent times and for visiting my mother in the hospital, holding her hand and brushing her hair.

Special thanks to all Leslie’s family and friends who reached out directly and talked with her via phone and video call while she was in and out of the hospital recently. This included her loving siblings, siblings in law, nieces, great nieces and previous caregiver. Thank you Scottie, Robbie, Joannie, Chuck, Zo, Lilly, Amy, Jasmine, Milly, Virginia, Alice and Krista! Everyone’s calls brought Leslie and us a lot of joy!

Thanks to everyone at the Sammamish YMCA who added a lot of joy to my parents' lives in the past several years. They provided community and a safe place for them to maintain their physical health. Thanks to the fellow “work out buddies” at the Sammamish Y who consistently asked how Leslie was doing.

Thanks to Roxanne and Saskia at Cedar Lawns for their compassion, excellent listening, calmness, kindness and complete expertise.

Ed would like to thank all the old friends and alumni from the Alderson Broaddus community who have so kindly given their condolences and support after Leslie’s passing.

LESLIE’S LIFE STORY:

Leslie was the beloved wife of Edward Gordon Hill and mother to Christopher Gordon Hill. She was born in MontClair, New Jersey to Margaret Edwardsen and Horace Buck Edwardsen. Leslie was preceded in death by her parents Buck and Margaret. Her grandmother McCallum should also be mentioned here since she was also a significant early caregiver. Leslie is survived by her husband Edward, son Christopher (He/They) and loving siblings, Scott Edwardsen (Lori) of Syracuse, New York, Robert Edwardsen (Betsy), of Rochester, New York, and Joannie Hinman (Chuck), of East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Leslie also has many nieces, nephews and great nieces, and nephews who loved her deeply.

Leslie was born in Newark Hospital weighing in at about 6 pounds. She spent her first years living at her grandmother McCallum’s house in Nutley New Jersey. Grandma “Mac” as her loved ones called her, spent a lot of quality time with Leslie supporting and guiding her in early childhood. Leslie spent her youth mostly in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon, and some time in Baltimore and Alabama.

Her first childhood memory was when she was eight. She rode an english bike to an elementary school in Baltimore, some boys said “we want that bike,” but she rode away and was too fast for them to catch her! She was always a fighter! As a side note, decades later as a mother she went into the woods and faced down a mob of neighborhood kids who had stolen her son’s scooter. This was in a suburb of Washington D.C. and some of these kids were quite big and freshly out of juvenile hall! She wasn’t even afraid when one of them threatened her with a baseball bat! She held her ground and got the scooter back!

Now back to Leslie’s early life…After graduating Mt Lebanon High School, Leslie attended college at Alderson Broaddus University in Philippi, West Virginia. After graduating from Alderson Broaddus (AB) Leslie went on to attain a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education at Penn West University in California, Pennsylvania.

Leslie contributed significantly to the Greater Good of our society by lovingly teaching hundreds of children. Leslie was unfortunately not treated well by some of her primary teachers growing up. Therefore she had a passion for treating her own students with empathy and care. She provided those children with a solid foundation on which to build and to become productive, loving adults, parents and perhaps teachers themselves. Leslie was profoundly dedicated, not only to teaching, but to the overall well being of her students.

When Leslie was a student teacher at AB she arranged for brand new quality shoes and socks to be donated to every student at Shinnston Elementary School in West VA. The children had only had ill fitting, thin rubber boots with no socks to wear before this. Before getting their new shoes, the children’s feet had been very cold in the winter months. Leslie’s mother Margaret went in person with Leslie to various shoe stores near the Pittsburgh community. Together they successfully convinced these Pittsburgh store owners to make all the shoe and sock donations.

Leslie’s Master’s Thesis was established via a wide reaching questionnaire about child food insecurity. It profoundly highlighted the need for students to have free meals at school in order to learn effectively. Many students did not have enough to eat at home and came to school hungry. Leslie sent her questionnaire to a large universe of elementary school teachers in proximity to Penn West University. She also sent the questionnaire to elementary school teachers in more distant adjacent towns. The resulting data proved the great significance of having food available to children at school. Leslie’s thesis and it’s research encouraged the establishment of many school districts providing free breakfast and lunch programs to elementary school children. Leslie summed up the findings of her research simply as “children who are hungry cannot learn!”

In 1968 Leslie married her husband, Edward, also a graduate of Alderson Broaddus University. They stayed married for life! A total of 57 years! In 1976 Leslie and Edward were blessed with a wonderful son, Christopher. Leslie loved using her degree to teach children and for eight years taught kindergarten in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania. Then, after moving to Ft. Washington, Maryland, Leslie established and managed a children’s early learning center for several years.

Leslie was profoundly loved by her family and many friends and especially those children whom she taught and guided towards wonderful, happy, and productive lives. The old saying that “one person can make a difference” certainly applied to Leslie.

Leslie Hill was an excellent mother. She was unconditionally loving and put her own child’s education first. When her son Chris had difficulty in elementary school and Jr. high, she took time off from her own teaching career to tutor him. This support allowed Chris to go on to do well in high school and then to graduate college at Fairhaven-WWU. She also supported his music career, encouraging his involvement with his rock band project “The Stardust Crush.” Chris has followed in Leslie’s footsteps and is also a teacher. He is a music educator. He gives instruction in various instruments, music theory and song writing to students of all ages! He is using his Fairhaven College interdisciplinary degree titled “Wellness Through Music for Children at Risk” to inform his teaching work.

Several years ago Leslie and Chris also started working together on a children’s book named “Shirley the Squirrel.” Chris will finish the book soon, both in her honor, and as a way to continue her legacy of helping children.

Not many knew this but Leslie at one time in childhood actually wanted her name to be “Rose.” She wrote “my name is Rose” in one of her own childhood books.

A BEAUTIFUL CONCLUSION:

So fare thee well Leslie “Rose!” Until we meet again some sunny day, know that we love you, that we will miss you and that we will be grateful for the time that we had on this earth with you!

Dearest Leslie, Chris and I and your family will miss your lovely smile, your indomitable feistiness, your sense of humor and your unbridled love and companionship! You lived a most meaningful life!

Leslie was cremated with her hair done nicely, wearing beautiful clothes and had a box of her favorite candy “Good and Plenty” tucked under her arm. Her life was in fact lived in a Good and Plenty way. She did Plenty of Good and had Plenty of love and adventure in life! Ma Ma you graduated this world with an A+ grade sweet teacher. Rest Well, Love, Ed, Chris, and all of your family and friends.

*In lieu of flowers Leslie hoped that those who wish to honor her life could make a donation now to the human rights organization Amnesty International.

A celebration of Leslie’s life and legacy will be held in the near future.