Audrey June Bright

Audrey June Aarstad was born in Burlington, Washington on June 18, 1931 to Anna Olausdatter Boe and Joakim Marcelius Aarstad. She was raised along with an older brother, Torleiv, and sister, Irene, on a dairy farm and attended grade school in a one room schoolhouse. Another brother John Arthur preceded her in death as an infant.

Audrey attended Western Washington Teacher’s College in Bellingham, WA where she earned her teaching certificate in 1951 and where she also met Maurice Walter Bright, whom she later married. He stood directly behind her in the school choir and would change the words to the songs just to make her laugh and get her attention, which it did, and she was immediately infatuated.

After marrying Maurice in August 1951, Audrey taught school for a while at Battle Ground Elementary, in Washington, but by the time their third girl came along, she was ready to devote her full attention to her family. They ultimately went on to make their permanent home in SW Seattle, Washington adding two boys to the mix. Audrey was mother to five children - Roseanna Marie, Colleen Jo, Nancy Jean, Bruce Alan and Arne Maurice.

Family life was of primary importance to Audrey, which was evidenced recently by the nearly 30 boxes of correspondence, greeting cards, school work, artwork and family photos that she had saved from every member of her family for over 65 years - including those of her parents and Norwegian relatives!

She was a wonderful, supportive mother of her five young children, for whom she baked birthday cakes, read bedtime stories, kissed booboos to make them all better, went shopping for Santa, made Halloween costumes, and taught them their ABC’s plus proper English. She was also a Cub Scout leader and was very involved in the PTA. She designed the layout and typed the Highland Park School Newsletter and recipe book, making copies on the ditto machine which sometimes produced purple hands! She faithfully sent her children to Highland Park United Methodist Sunday school every Sunday, believing it was important for her children to have some sort of spiritual foundation.

She very much enjoyed working a little stint at Sears & Roebuck to earn spending money for herself and their new kitchen - exploring her individuality and gaining a little reprieve from being a mom and housewife. She also developed some hobbies which included various craft making from mail order kits, sewing, embroidery & cross-stitching, and tole painting. She tried substitute teaching for a while, but decided that it was not her cup of tea. Later, she worked and retired as a secretary for Saint James Lutheran Church - a pleasant little walk up and down the hill and a job she thoroughly enjoyed. She also worked as a Kelly Girl, as well as a volunteer at a mental health clinic.

Audrey was very proud of her Norwegian heritage and desired that all her children visit the homeland of her parents - four of her five children accepted the opportunity. She traveled to Norway several times to visit relatives and vacationed with her hubby in Hawaii and Mexico. She became a member of the Norwegian Ladies Chorus and proudly wore her festive Bunad (the traditional folk costume of Norway) whenever the opportunity arose, and on which she did lovely embroidery embellishments.

Music was essential in her life. She sang in the church choir, enjoyed playing piano for brief interludes from parenting and would crank up the stereo volume to sing along with her favorites in her high soprano voice - particularly in the mornings while she made breakfast for the family and in the evenings while she prepared supper. Audrey was an avid reader and especially enjoyed steamy romance novels and murder mysteries - Danielle Steel was one of her favorite authors. Another favored pastime was watching Wheel of Fortune and guessing the answers out loud - she was quite good at it and possessed a long held dream to be a contestant on the show. Scrabble was her game of choice, especially when she won, which was often, but she did not divulge her secret to winning until very recently. In her later years, she joined a writer’s group and had great fun inventing imaginative short stories that paralleled her real life.

She earnestly cared for her daughter, Colleen, for the duration of her terminal cancer, and later, for her husband, who became afflicted with Parkinson’s and was also paralyzed by a stroke. Maurice and Audrey were married for 53 years until his death in 2004. Audrey opened her home often and her heart to support her grandchildren and extended family, allowing and offering them every possible opportunity to thrive in the security of a solid home.

For all these things, we thank you mom, for doing your best to love us all unconditionally, affording us a blessed life of knowing that, no matter what, we were deeply loved.

Audrey is survived by Roseanna (Bright) Ryan and Tom Ryan of Seal Rock, Oregon; Nancy Bright of Eugene OR ; Bruce Bright and Kerry Lucci of Burien WA; Arne Bright of Seattle WA and Cathy Bright of Kenya, Africa. Her beloved daughter Colleen (Bright) Davies preceded her in death as well as her sweetheart husband Maurice W. Bright.

Survivors also include her sister Irene Fox, cousin Neva Leed, cousin Kirsten Brambo, and her grandchildren: Micah Bright; Gabriel Ryan & wife Mandy; Katie (Ryan) Hill & husband Tucker Hill; Georgegina, Arnabelle and Scarlett Bright; Andrew and Kim Ndambo & Cocoa, as well as nine great grandchildren - 3 girls and 6 boys, and of course, very many nieces, nephews and greats.

A memorial service will be held at Highland Park United Methodist Church at 9001 9th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98106 on Saturday, May 6th at 1:00.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Diabetes Association and Highline Relay for Life Sea Hawkers Team.