Sandra Robertson

Sandra and Jack Robertson

Sandra Robertson, born Sandra Jane Snider, passed away on June 28, 2022.  Sandra was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico on March 20, 1938, and died peacefully in the Seattle suburb of Bothell, Washington, while living at home with her loving husband, Jack.

Sandra grew up in Tucumcari, New Mexico. As a teenager, she worked at La Cita, her parents’ Mexican restaurant.  She studied piano and loved classical music.  She also loved literature and films.  She persuaded the local movie theater to bring in the movie Cyrano so she could see it. She read most of the books at the local library.   At the restaurant, she spent her breaks in the back room atop the meat freezer, reading War and Peace.

Sandra began dating Jack Robertson in junior high school, and in 1957 they married, eventually settling in the country near Pullman, Washington. Together, Jack and Sandra raised three children, Rebecca, Maurice, and Jane, to whom Sandra passed on wise advice, enduring values, respect for living things, and an appreciation for music and reading.

Sandra’s faith in God, like her husband Jack’s, was the cornerstone of her life.  It shone in all her everyday actions over the course of her sixty-five year marriage.

Her love of the arts and philosophy led her to graduate from University of Utah as a member of Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in English.  She went on to pour her considerable gifts into the life of her family.  She read her children to sleep at night.  She taught them all to play the piano, sitting beside them on the piano bench and guiding their fingers over the scales.  Later, she discussed religion and philosophy with them in the kitchen as they helped with the dish-washing.

In midlife Sandra worked as an administrative assistant at Washington State University, but her professional career never interfered with her creative expression and generous heart for family.  She wrote poetry, and songs with piano accompaniment.  She quilted, crocheted, and sewed clothes and doll clothes for her children and seven beloved grandchildren.

Sandra’s love of living things prompted her to adopt five horses over the course of her life, as well as numerous cats and dogs.  She had a tender heart for animals, who returned her love with devotion.  After Jack and Sandra retired and moved to Sutter, California, she spent hours riding and caring for her Icelandic ponies, bonded with her final canine companion, Resi, and adopted her final two stray cats, Barnum and Bailey.  The cats and Resi accompanied Jack and Sandra to Sandra’s final home in Bothell, where every morning at breakfast Sandra managed to sneak Resi some of her sausage.

Sandra is survived by her sister Susie, her husband, three children, and seven grandchildren, who will be continually blessed by the memory of her feisty attitude, constant singing, and unconditional love. The surviving family members request that in lieu of flowers, you lavish love on your family and spread kindness to all, as Sandra always did.