We lost Kirsten suddenly on Thursday night, July 17th. She was only 54 years old and died of multiple health problems which were unknown and insurmountable.

Kirsten was born in Walla Walla, Washington on January 13th, 1971, to Nancy Bachant and Lee H. Bowker. She was only 3 years old when Lee and Nancy divorced and began a “year abroad” adventure with her mom, traveling around England and Europe while Nancy tried to get her bearings as a single mom with a young child to raise alone on almost no income. Kirsten always remembered those vagabond escapades fondly and treasured the albums we made.

Kirsten loved visiting her grandma Blanche in Walla Walla. She spent some time up in the South Fork of the Walla Walla River on a horse ranch, she made many life-long memories.

The next childhood adventure was living on the Western Shoshone Indian Reservation in Duckwater, Nevada with her “Little Mom” for nearly 2 years. This experience had a profound effect on the rest of her life, and she always remembered fondly

her Indian Mother, Pauline Blackeye, and Indian father Willie Blackeye, a Shoshone Indian doctor. They filled the parenting gap while Nancy worked at the tribal office and school.

It was on her 6th birthday, in 1977, at nearby (30 miles away) Current Creek Station when a young geologist happened to discover it was her birthday and bought her a piece of “birthday pie” and a Welsh’s grape juice (don’t forget the juice in the story, Mom!). This wonderful, intelligent and caring geologist eventually became her new dad, Kevin Freeman.

This new family moved to a house on Vashon at Dolphin Point in 1978. Kirsten was 7 years old and she has lived mostly on island ever since. She went to Burton School, Vashon Elementary, and McMurray Middle School.

She graduated from Kennedy High School in 1988 and journeyed to Humboldt State in California. After a few years, Kirsten returned to her island home but took time to graduate WSU with a degree in Biology.

While in Eastern Washington, she met Tim Johnson and is responsible for introducing him to island life. He and Kirsten spent 12 years together here, and although they no longer lived together, they maintained a friendship that lasted until her death. She and her childhood neighbor, Britta Garland Peterson, and John, Chris and Paul Martin, remained close for the rest of her life. In 1985, 15-year-old Kirsten welcomed her little brother, Kyle Freeman, and was a loving sibling from birth on.

Kirsten was very well-known on the island. She had many friends and neighbors from school, work, and everywhere she went. She worked at Thriftway, Island Lumber, OCCU, Windermere, and Vashon Youth and Family Services.

During Middle School, she began her long career acting and singing in school and Drama Dock Productions. She was Josh Cobb’s Brunhilde to his Siegfried in 1984 in an independent children’s version of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung.” How she loved Wagner and “The Ring.” She had a beautiful voice and sang and acted in island productions over the years. She sang in Iolanthe, and for the entire Kennedy High School, the Ave Maria and O Holy Night.

She was known as the stage manager to remember, mainly because she was so kind to her fellow thespians. They loved her caring ways.

Her love of animals was legendary, saving each spider and calling them by their genders. She went to horse camp at Camp Sealth.

She made bouquets for people’s weddings, including her brother’s, and spent many hours preparing flowers for other weddings and baby showers. She loved being a hostess and gifted appetizer trays to parties, beautifully arranged, like her flower gifts.

She loved gardening and was so well-rounded, with piano lessons, ballet, singing lessons, acting and riding horses.

She loved sharing her photography of nature and marine life and gifted some of her pictures she created. There will be a display of her photos at her memorial.

And how she loved Halloween! Many of you remember the displays about town that she created, including a full haunted house at Windermere! And she immersed herself in the world of miniatures and created miniature dioramas and dollhouses.

She was very crafty and created paper crafts, beads and jewelry, again often gifting friends and family with her creations. And if you were lucky enough to get a gift from her, you never wanted to open the package because it was so beautifully wrapped.

Her musical taste ranged from classical and opera, Broadway showtunes, to heavy metal. All of it loud.

She will be remembered so lovingly as a kind and generous person, sometimes to a fault. While looking over the Facebook comments surrounding her passing, the word “kind” was used numerous times. And the word “generous.”

People recall her getting coffee at the local coffee stand with her dog, Ragnar, screaming in the background with delight. How she loved that dog and his predecessor Isolde!

In sum, she loved Vashon, and Vashon loved her back.

She is survived by her parents, Nancy Bachant and Kevin Freeman, her brother Kyle Freeman and his wife Krystanne, her son Patrick McDonnell, Tim’s children Skyler McCann, Devon and Maddie (Heil) Walser, and Nicolas Johnson, numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends and her beloved and constant companion Ragnar.

A Celebration of Life will be held on September 14th, at 5:30pm, at the Vashon Center for the Arts in the Atrium. In lieu of flowers the family asks you to remember her with a donation to VIPP or Haven. More details will come later.