Born at Swedish Hospital in Seattle, Washington.
Our dearest Anna blessed our lives in so many ways.
We lived in Issaquah when we were so abundantly blessed with our baby girl. At 10 months old, this tiny child joined our family with so much love and joy.
She made our family complete … Jim, Debbie, Alex and Anna.
When she was 17 months old we moved to Bainbridge Island where she started preschool at what is now known as First Years Children’s Center when it was located on Knechtel Way. She really liked going to school to see her friends and learning new things. In grade school she continued to flourish making many new friendships and thriving under the guidance of many gifted and talented teachers and staff at Captain Johnston Blakely Elementary School.
These early years she enjoyed Girl Scouts, PeeWee Cheer, gymnastics and other lessons and camps through Parks and Rec like swimming, cooking, knitting, canoeing and other fun activities and sports. In middle school she went on a “field trip” to Costa Rica and completed an Outward Bound excursion in the woods of Maine and Vermont. She even enjoyed and looked forward to our family vacations that were much less adventurous. She loved going to the Peek family cabin near Darrington, it held a place in her heart where grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all gathered by the river. She also loved going to the Yakima Valley for Thanksgivings at the dairy with her other grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. Family gatherings of any sort were fun to her.
At Bainbridge High School she was on the gymnastics team and worked with the kids at Kidi Discovery Museum. She learned to drive, went to homecomings and prom, had the whole high school experience. One of her special talents was finding four leaf clovers. You could show her a patch of clover and within minutes a lucky clover would be in your hand. She graduated in 2013.
Anna went on to take the Cosmetology and Esthiology Programs at Gary Manuel Aveda Institute on Capital Hill. Afterward she decided she preferred to work with kids and took temporary childcare jobs on the side.
Not only did Anna love kids smaller than herself, she loved animals of all kinds. Cats (her first word was “Kitty”), dogs, dolphins, birds (she set up a bird feeder on the apartment’s deck much to the consternation of her boyfriend) and loved being a Dog Mom to her Puggle “Kali.”
Anna loved reading and watching Anime, playing video games and going to music festivals. Her all time favorite anime was “My Neighbor, Totoro”. Which inspired a colorful tattoo that she adamantly and painfully achieved.
She loved everything about Hawaii and traveling. What a fun traveler she was, ready to try out the zip line, the roller coaster, take a hike or take a break for lunch then get lost on the streets of a new city like San Francisco or Venice and then of course go shopping for shoes afterward. Not much slowed her down.
She was such a ferocious defender of her friends that on occasion her actions would land her in trouble. She cared about the underdog and was passionate about the rights of all people.
A couple years ago Anna met and fell in love with Jadon. They enjoyed all those music festivals together and their life in Renton with doggo, Kali, and the bird feeder on the third floor deck. They were planning a future together when her life was cut way too short at 27.
We will all miss her beautiful smile and her sweet joyful laugh. And we will especially miss the love she shared with all of us.
A celebration of Anna’s life will be held at
2 PM August 20, 2022
Bainbridge First Baptist Church
8810 N. Madison Ave. NE
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to the Diabetes Association of America.
