Ilene Mitsu Fukuda Blackburn

Her last words: "The lights are SO BEAUTIFUL!"

LIFE

Ilene was born in Spokane, WA, on September 8, 1945. A few months later, Dr. and Mrs. Fukuda were given permission to move their family of four children back to Seattle, to continue their war-interrupted lives.

Ilene grew up in Seattle, graduated from Franklin in 1963, later from University of Puget Sound. She was a life-long learner, and did huge volumes of post-grad training. She applied nearly everything she learned, sooner or later, to aid someone's injured body.

Because she was the youngest in her generation, she had the pleasure of lots of involvement with her many treasured nieces and nephews. They - and her large, extended family and friends - brought her continuous joy always.

As for us, we met in June, 1979, and married 6 months later. We lived in Ballard, later in Seward Park. We left Seattle for the Kitsap Peninsula 15 years ago. Yes, Seattle is a world-class city, but the peninsula is sweet, benign, and unpretentious. She was very happy here - fantastic neighbors, easy biking, an absence of gunfire in the nearby park, and her work commute was less than 2 miles.

CAREER

Ilene was an occupational therapist of exceptional skill. She achieved professional success early in her decades-long career; first as the director of O.T. at Valley General Hospital, Renton. Later, she held the same post at the Seattle VA - a teaching hospital.

At the VA, she guided and mentored numbers of young therapists. A Group Health director once came back to thank her for her loving attention, back when she was her student.

As a hand therapy specialist, Ilene built hundreds of custom fit splints, A workplace ergonomics expert, she evaluated and treated lots of Micrsofties in Redmond as well. ("now, about those coding errors...")

She once treated Ram Dass, who was in Seattle to give a fund-raiser talk at the Fifth Avenue Theater. It was quite a sight, dispensed during lunch, over a table at Anthony's Pier 66. He was grateful for the alleviation of pain. After the treatment, we sat quietly for a bit. They just beamed at each other for a few seconds ... it was a beautiful thing to see.

In recent years, Ilene had been serving aging veterans at the Washington Veterans Home at Retsil, Port Orchard. She was widely loved there.

I dropped off lunch for her one day, and a grizzled, old vet quietly told me "she's an angel." "yeah, I know" I said breezily. He shook his head, leaned in and said "you don't get it ...I said she's an angel ... literally." I got it.

Others see her as a Bodhisattva, which is incidentally, how I see her. Though labels always limit, I can't find any other language in the world's great traditions that addresses her remarkable way of being. While even the Buddhists don't all agree exactly what "Bodhisattva" means, if the shoe fits....

RECENT TIMES

Luckily, we traveled a lot in the summer/fall 2011 - Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Long Beach, Dallas, and Louisiana, in that order.

The body issues began in December, 2011 with pneumonia. In February, 2012, a lung spontaneously collapsed. Her lung tissue was being scarred by an autoimmune disorder.

She was not a transplant candidate. She would have lived perhaps 2-3 years, being slowly asphyxiated, and anchored to a chair, with a bottle of oxygen and a TV remote.

Interestingly, her face never lost its radiant beauty, even as the rest of her body was preparing to fold. The Big View says it's nothing to get too excited about - a"tattered coat on a stick", as e.e. cummings once described an old body.

In early April, 2013, Grace came by to visit, and the 2-3 year window suddenly narrowed. A particularly fast-moving form of cancer appeared like a wildfire. It came as an uninvited guest, and when it was clear it was here to stay, she invited it to sit for tea.

In reality, her cancer - and the chemo that slowed it down - were both gifts. It gave her time to wrap up her life; of dangling communication cycles, unspoken truths, and deep conversations with family and friends.

It was grace that allowed her to live her final days pain-free, lucidly, consciously, and incredibly, with minimal meds. She aimed to be as drug-free as possible, as awake and aware as she could be. She succeeded on all fronts.

She was a private person, and never self-promoted. She had a finely tuned awareness; she was highly psychic, and she was a genuine empath of staggering ability. Few people knew this, because she was stealthy, but not stingy - about sharing her powers to help others heal.

She was a powerful, resplendent Asian Dragon, cloaked as a harmless pretty bird that always smiled.

In Closing

We were all enriched by her presence. Because I am greedy at times, I would like to have her back, sure.

But really, I know she is needed in other, loftier realms - one thirsting for the high-octane Loving Presence she brings to every table.

Though I let her go - she's off to do more important work - I haven't lost anything on the level that matters most. Quantum physicists call that place "the Nonlocal Universe".

I just call it "here" ... for, in a sense, she's not really gone ... she just got a LOT BIGGER.

Trent Blackburn