Alyce Marilyn Engstrom quietly departed this life on Saturday, October 9th. She was born on June 14th, 1932 and spent her early childhood on her parents’ farm in Lake Bronson, Minnesota. She was the eldest of the five children of Olga and Ole Engstrom, whose families were originally from Sweden and Norway. After Alyce completed her nurse’s training in Minnesota, she decided to give the West a try and got her first job in Seattle, Washington. It didn’t take long for her to fall under the spell of the Pacific Northwest, where she spent many happy hours hiking and backpacking on trails in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. Not content with merely hiking, Alyce also summited every major peak in the State of Washington, with the exception of Mount Rainier--where she was met with white-out conditions as she approached the summit and was forced to turn back.
A voracious reader with an inquisitive mind, Alyce availed herself of the many cultural amenities Seattle had to offer. She greatly appreciated her Scandinavian heritage and took advantage of a variety of local Scandinavian cultural events. She went yearly to the Seattle International Film Festival and regularly visited the Seattle Public Library, where she found a broad range of fiction and non-fiction to suit her eclectic tastes. She especially loved poetry. She also took advantage of Seattle’s myriad musical offerings and attended concerts ranging from classical to folk. She loved the theatre, especially musicals, and could still sing the complete lyrics to songs from Oklahoma without missing a beat. The possessor of an artistic temperament, she was an imaginative and skilled seamstress and created a variety of works of art over the years.
Alyce loved the earth and its varied inhabitants, especially the four-legged kind. She was a cat whisperer extraordinaire and was beloved by every cat on her Sycamore Avenue block, many of whom were regular visitors to her front porch, where they were guaranteed a warm reception. A profusion of red poppies, hollyhocks, ornamental grasses and all manner of other beautiful flowers met the frequent human visitors to her garden, who stopped by to see the latest results of her green thumb.
Alyce’s Midwestern pragmatism, her incredibly wry sense of humor, her courage in the face of numerous physical challenges, her creative intelligence, and her love of life will be missed greatly by those who knew and loved her. Fiercely independent, Alyce lived most of her nearly 90 years without any caregiving assistance. Right up to the point of her death, Alyce was still looking forward, still hopeful, still planning. She never gave up until she was forced to do so. Left to mourn her passing are her devoted brothers Paul and Donald, numerous nieces and nephews and their families, many cousins and her close friend Karen. Alyce was preceded in death by her parents and her beloved sisters, Marlys and Sharon. Memorial donations in her honor may be sent to any organization devoted to animal rights and welfare.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.butterworthfuneralhome.com for the ENGSTROM family.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18