Van Bacon
Van Bacon
Van Bacon, loving husband, devoted friend, and extraordinary cat dad, died unexpectedly on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, at 4:10 PM. He was 66 years young.
Van was born in San Diego, CA, on August 1, 1954 to Ralph & Versal (Brown) Heller. He grew up primarily in Illinois, Tennessee, and Maryland. After leaving Shenandoah Valley Academy in late 1972 or early 1973, Van joined Job Corps where he was trained as a CNA. He finally made his way into the US Army where he served from 1979 to 1981 with an MOS of Chemical Equipment Repair Specialist. After leaving the army, Van went to Pierce College to get certified as a Chemical Dependency Counselor, a career where he spent the rest of his working life. He met the love of his life, Caroline, in 1990 and they married on December 6 of that same year.
Van loved spaghetti, video games, old TV shows, TCM, Elvis, Janis Joplin (his first love!), all music (except for Jazz and Classical/Opera), and NPR. He was one of the kindest people on the planet. He loved to sing, he loved to help people. He was generous to a fault and he was true to himself. Above all, he loved his wife Caroline and their many cats over the 30 years that they were together.
Van is survived by his wife, Caroline, as well as his brother and sister-in-law, Irving & Nancy Heller of Damascus, MD, their two daughters Denise Fanai (Muana), Jen Heller (Mike Chellini) and many other aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews. He was embraced by Caroline’s family as one of their own. Van was supported throughout his adult life by great friends, most especially Chris Mitchell, his adopted big sister. He will also be greatly missed by his church family at United Christian Church of Renton.
There will be a virtual memorial service on Saturday, November 28th, at 1:00 p.m. PST. Those who would like to participate please contact Caroline at carolinebacon@comcast.net – she will send you a link to the ZOOM service.
In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution to your local animal shelter.
9 Responses to “Van Bacon”
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Van, I will miss you every day for the rest of my life. We started out as friends in 1984, then we became family. Marge took you on as her as her other kid. I hope you and Marge are together in heaven playing video games.
I will miss our weekends and all the talks we had. You started out as my sister, then my brother. You never got upset with me when I messed up.
You had such a loving and giving heart. I will miss you and I will think about you every day. You have a special place in my heart.
Peace and love my brother…..
Caroline, my thoughts and prayers are with you as you adjust to life (on earth) without Van. You have such great memories, photos and stories to share that will keep him very much alive in your heart! Rest in Peace Van.
Throughout our careers as counselors with King County to sharing the duties as President of Local 519, we have had a bond the most important element of which was “first of all, do no harm”. Both of us always agreed about the best interest of our patients. I know we hadn’t always kept in touch but every good memory I have throughout the first half of my second career has you in it. Rest your soul, be at peace and you know we’ll see each other again.
Deb dreamed about you last week and you visited Chris the other day. I wish you would make yourself known to me as I miss you so much.
I love you forever,
C
I can’t believe it’s been 3 months. I miss you so much. I love you so much.
Love of my life, heart of my heart.
Love of my life, heart of my heart. I shared your wonderfulness AND your stubbornness with a friend today.
I still get choked up when I talk about you. I really wish you were here in the land of the living but I know that you are here in my heart always. I love you and I miss you.
My love – so much has happened since I last wrote. I miss you still so terribly and the 3rd was so hard to get through.
I would give everything to have you back again.
I love you forever
I miss you so much. ❤
I don’t want you to think I have forgotten you as that is not possible. I know that you have lots of company there and I’m sure that Reuben is giving you all kinds of love and hugs.
I miss you terribly…