Barbara Chasan died on October 19, very much at home: in her house, in a community

filled with people she loved; in the arms of her husband, Dan.

Many people remember her kindness and her smile.

Barbara liked walking by the ocean, swimming in the Sound, hiking in the mountains, practicing yoga, reading poetry, drinking good wine, sitting on the porch first thing every morning with a cup of coffee watching the birds. She played early music from original notation with friends in Seattle and wrote haiku with friends on Vashon. She grew up working in her family’s drive-in movie theaters; later, she worked as a book editor and a bone marrow transplant nurse. She shopped locally and tipped generously. She believed in universal health care.

Picture her stopping beside a trail to look closely at a clump of yellow violets.Picture her sitting with friends at a table in Snapdragon as morning edged into noon. Picture her flying upside down on a trapeze.

Barbara celebrated her 70th birthday with family and friends at the Monkey Tree on Vashon. She celebrated her 30th with blini caviar and iced vodka at a White Russian restaurant in Tehran. She savored her memories of both. Until she got sick, she didn’t realize how many people on Vashon cared about her. She was glad that chemotherapy gave her another year among those people, with her close friends, whom she considered de facto family, and most of all with her husband, Dan, her children, Sarah and Matthew, and her grandchildren, Isaac, Josephine, Aaron and Shaughnessey.

She and Dan spent her last morning in her room at Group Health drinking coffee, watching birds, and reading poetry aloud. She wanted desperately to come home before she died, and she made it.

Her family and many friends will celebrate her life at Camp Burton on Sunday, November 18 at 3 p.m.

Paid Obituary.