Amelia Elizabeth Snell
Amelia Elizabeth Snell was born in Penewawa, Washington on January 24, 1925 as Amelia Steiger. She passed in Kirkland Washington, March 30 2014 at 10:05 pm. The cause of her passing was a circulatory disease of an uncertain nature, which thankfully caused her no pain. Amy passed to Spirit after a three-week hospital stay that fortunately came with minimal distress.
Amy was the daughter of immigrants who originally came from Germany through Russia (father) and Romania (mother) and then to America. She was the seventh child of a large family of eleven kids. She was an outgoing, energetic and fun-loving spirit. She was easygoing and forgiving in nature, often saying that “people do the best they can” with the circumstances and abilities they were given.
Amy attended the University of Idaho, earned her Bachelor’s in dietetics, and interned at Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1949. In the next few years she lived and adventured in Portland, Seattle, North Hollywood, then Hawaii for six months, and finally Anchorage Alaska where she met her husband to be in Larry D. Snell. They were married in 1957 and had their first boy Gary in 1958. Her second son David came along in 1961. She was very loving, generous and protective towards her children.
In Alaska she did the meal planning for the Alaska Native Hospital and then the Anchorage school district, making sure the kids were getting balanced nutrition. Pretty soon she was traveling to several other places in Alaska to do the same for other school districts.
Here’s a funny story that she liked to laugh at, one that shows her irreverent humor and adventurous life: She often flew in a
single-engine plane to Valdez, flying over the Chugach Mountains, with its sharp horn-shaped peaks and treacherous glaciers. It suddenly occurred to her to ask the pilot “Hey, what happens if we lose engine power?” He replied “Lady, if that ever happens you can kiss your sweet a** goodbye!”
She went from passion to passion, taking up painting and then golf and finally landing on tennis as her favorite activity. In her final years when she had limited mobility, she read widely and enjoyed visits with family most of all. She once joked that the two things she was living for were “you [her sons] and coffee.” She had considerable short-term memory loss in her last years, but she maintained a fairly cheerful attitude and always enjoyed chatting away with visitors.
A memorial service will be held to celebrate Amy’s life at Woodinville Church on April 27, 2014, in the afternoon around 1:30. The church address is 17110 140th Ave NE, Woodinville, WA 98072. Afterwards we will hold a reception at Gary’s home at 10718 Sunrise Drive, Bothell, WA 98011. Larry currently rests in Anchorage Cemetery and we hope to inter Amelia’s cremated ashes with him this summer.
8 Responses to “Amelia Elizabeth Snell”
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Amy was a very special sister to me as all of my sisters were. I was the youngest child in the family so I had angel sisters who looked after me. When my Mom told me one of my sisters would come home I would sit on the porch and wait for them. They sometimes would bring me a present. Amy is the one who played with me a lot when she came home. She had a terrific sense of humor and sometimes would play tricks on me. My sister Freda and I went to Maui with Amy and had a good time. The three of us also made a trip out to the farm, visited the old school house, the cabin where a teacher lived, and roamed the property where Amy and others built a cabin down on the flat below our home. I was very fortunate to be a part of a large family that looked out for me. Amy, you will always be with me. Love, Lorine
I recently received this from Arlene Logan, Amy’s tennis friend when she was living in Arizona, where she is remembered as being well liked:
Amy was our AZ neighbor at Village Square Condo Assn. She lived above us in building #4 and we were tennis partners over the years. I will post your message to those who remember her–there are many– and also inform our tennis club.
Amy would be very pleased that you sent this message and again our sincerest sympathy.
Arlene and Bob Logan
Aunt Amy was special to me and we always had a good time together. I remember one time Aunt Amy, mom and I we went to Costco together when she wanted to buy a couch. She joked around with the sales clerk and he said he thought we were all sisters. Aunt Amy laughed so hard…she really liked that comment. Aunt Amy was an inspiration to me because she also told me to make the best impression at work as you can and you will have a good reference in case you need to find another job. Perhaps that is the reason why I work in Human Resources and strive each day to do the best I can. She was an inspiration because of her adventurous spirit. I will miss her. Love you Aunt Amy!
Amy was one of my favorite aunts because she always made me laugh and she had a great sense of humor. I looked forward to visiting each time around the holidays because she had such a positive attitude. I remember when I was younger I helped her move and drove her car with her to Oregon…she was a lot of fun! I will miss her!
I’m going through Amy’s photos and clippings. Here’s a newspaper article from 1964 with a photo of her that she humorously labeled as a “mug shot” 🙂
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Click on that image to see the ImageBam-hosted image. After it loads, you can click on the image to enlarge it.
From me and Gary, thanks to everybody who could come to Amy’s memorial service, and for the loving compassion bestowed on us both. Special thanks to Alix for flying all the way up from California, bringing with her the friendly and warm energy that’s always endeared her to us all.
Here’s a link to a clipping I showed at the gathering at Gary’s house. It could well be titled “A workday in the life of Amy: the compassionate (and funny) dietician.”
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The way imagebam.com works, sometimes you need to click twice. The first time serves up an ad, the second time the link actually works. On different computers, it may work differently or not at all. An alternative of clicking-to-enlarge is to just press [Ctrl]+ multiple times until ithe pic large enough to suit your vision.
I was informed by BartonFuneral.com that sometimes people make posts six months afterwards, e.g. they learn about someone’s passing from a friend. I’ll make another post on Mother’s Day. I suggest that (a) anyone who wants to post do so before then, and (b) anyone can read all the posts then or thereafter.
For myself, I’ll be getting back to nature a lot. I live only 50 yards from a cell phone tower and I’m afraid it’s affected my health, so I need to get away from that and the 15-20 wi-fi networks in my condo that are constantly showering everyody here with EMF. Then there is the EMF that is actually emitted by every computer. I’m sure that moving my computer 6 feet away from me and using it less often has helped my heart a lot. A laptop may seem like it’s too low-energy to affect you, but anyone who uses computers much and wants to safeguard their health should always use it with a keyboard that has at least a five-foot cord.
Stay in good health everone!
I read this in a booklet on what heaven is like, it made me smile:
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On Mother’s Day, one last blessing of maximum optimism for Amy and everyone she loved:
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