Sara Lee Rosenthal

9/13/1943  –  11/7/2024

Sara Lee Rosenthal

Sara Lee Rosenthal, the original SaraLee (“want some cheesecake?”), lived her life with childlike joy, magical thinking, few filters and love. She died on November 7th, 2024 due to metastasized lung cancer and complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

TL:dr – Sara was born, loved her people, lived a wacky life, made music, developed Alzheimer’s disease and died surrounded by love.

A shortened version of the whole story:

Born in Redding, California on September 13, 1943, to Dorothy (Stetson) Vereide. She was the third of four children, Daphne, D’Eric, Sara and Judi. Raised in Texas, Michigan and California. Sara proudly told us she was crowned Freckle Queen of Sacramento as a kid. Sara’s mother remarried and Sara and her siblings were adopted by their father James Vereide, also adding a new sister, Betty. Sara got her love of music from her mother, Dorothy, who played piano. Jim played Trumpet, Judi played clarinet, Daphne was a majorette and Sara played viola and piano. She graduated from El Camino High School in Sacramento, California and went on to University of California, Davis where she received a bachelor’s degree in music with an emphasis in conducting. She was the first woman to receive a conducting degree in the University of California system, at least that’s what she told us. She worked at the Sacramento Music Circus with her mother.

Sara married shortly after graduating from UCD, settled in Davis, and gave birth to Dorothy in 1966. Jonathan was born in 1972 after Dorothy wished on a falling star for a baby brother.

Sara was a stay-at-home mom at the beginning of her children’s lives. She would play solitaire on the floor for hours (while drinking endless cups of coffee and chain smoking), could finish the NY Times Crossword easily (in pen, always), and taught herself how to tap dance in the kitchen from a book. She was a crazy genius with a high IQ and perilously little life skills. She sang, played the piano and viola beautifully, and completed a book each day. She led Campfire troupes for both kids and volunteered in every part of their lives. Jonathan remembers driving around with her spotting cats from the car.

Sara remained active in music and musical theater, as the associate conductor of the Davis community band and an actor in many theater productions in town. She wrote a semi-autobiographical play called, “Get it Together, Woman,” which was produced at UCD. She wrote a symphony, The 19th Day, performed by the Davis Community Band and conducted by Sara.

A deeply spiritual woman, she found the Bahá’í faith in the late ’60s and was immediately drawn to their teachings of unity, equality, and love. She dedicated herself to these beliefs, passionately supporting world unity and peace.

Sara divorced and moved from Davis to Stockton in the ’80s where she performed on stage and played in the orchestra at Stockton Civic Theatre and Tokay Players. She was a substitute teacher, worked at the YMCA, and worked with the Hmong community in Stockton. She was able to travel to France, Israel, and Japan.

In 1990 she moved to Evanston, Illinois to work at the Bahá’í National Center, where she sang in the choir and was able to conduct. She made many beautiful friendships there. While in Chicago, she faced her first battle with cancer. Surgeries, radiation, and a lymph node resection gave her a cure.

In 1994 she moved to Seattle to be closer to Dorothy, where she spent most of the rest of her life. She lived with Dorothy from 1994-2016, and 2019-2021, most of Dorothy’s adult life.

In 1997 she took on the best and biggest job of her life as Granny. The births and lives of her grandchildren gave her great purpose, meaning, and the ability to shower them with love and unending silliness and be a child alongside them.

Sara met her best friend, James Wolford, in the early 2000s and the two of them embarked on an epic friendship journey. They were a perfect match. Adorned head to toe (and matching) in all the colors of the rainbow, they went on myriad adventures together. They traveled by train and car up and down the West Coast, flew to the Midwest and went on daily adventures in the Seattle area. They sang together in the Sno- King Chorale and performed in half a dozen shows with Variety Plus theatre. They were ubiquitous,

*everyone* saw Sara and James together. James became a Bahá’í and they worshipped and studied together. They delighted in grandparent duties, often to Marina’s embarrassment, but always with joy.

Marina grew up with Granny as part of everything she did. Marina and Granny performed together in VP shows from when she was 6 (Peter Pan, Marina as a fairy and Sara as Nana the dog) until she was 14. Some of Marina’s most treasured memories include sitting at the piano downstairs in the Edmonds house, learning to play Scales and Arpeggios from Aristocats; Granny teaching her to sing “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story; Granny teaching her how to skip while watching a Bones marathon on TV. She will never forget the Sno-King choir Christmas concert in a local QFC on Marina’s 13th birthday where Granny embarrassed her as a tap-dancing reindeer. And, of course, the infamous kitchen floor slip-and-sliding, aided by a bucket of water and dish soap – until it began leaking into the downstairs! Jack remembers loading Granny in the car with his dad and driving around Stockton spotting cats.

Sara began experiencing the effects of Alzheimer’s disease in 2014, although it would be several years before she was diagnosed. Being such a non-traditional free spirit, it was sometimes hard to determine whether this was dementia or just Sara. In time it became clear that she would require more care and Dorothy and Jonathan decided that she should move to California to be closer to Jonathan in a community that would provide her with some assistance. She spent over 3 years there, time that Jack and Lana were able to spend with Granny, cementing their relationships. In 2015 and 2016 she fought her second bout with cancer in both Seattle and California. After three surgeries and radiation it was determined that she had clean margins.

As Sara’s dementia progressed she had a harder time living alone. She was still able to mask the overall impact of it, due in large part to her wacky nature. But one day in November 2019 she climbed into a truck with an acquaintance from her senior apartments carrying her purse, her cell phone, and a WinCo bag full of sandwiches and a change of clothing. Three days later she was in Oklahoma. She thought she was coming to visit Dorothy. We remain ever grateful that Ahimza called her that day, that her cell phone still had a charge, and that our friends were able to drive from Oklahoma City, collect her from the police department, and put her on a plane to Seattle.

After arriving back in Seattle, apparently her plan the whole time, Dorothy started the process of getting her officially diagnosed to help get the necessary care and services. Every day Sara would go to school with Dorothy, attend classes, watch rehearsals, and then attended all of the student performances. She was able to see Marina’s first opera, and watch performances of Frozen, Jr., Little Mermaid, and Footloose. In February, she finally received a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and then covid hit. For the next 20 months, Sara lived in the living room of Dorothy, Kori and Marina’s house while Dorothy taught online only 5 ft from her. Marina attended college classes online and Kori worked the graveyard shift at the local grocery store.

This was an incredibly difficult time for all of them, but not without comedy. For example, we found out that

Sara is in charge of the unicorns and that Thursday is unicorn day.

As the world started to reopen in 2021, the process of finding care for Sara also restarted. After months of paperwork, meetings, appointments, pushing, scratching and screaming for services, she was authorized to move into an adult family home. Finding the right place was hard, but a referral from a friend brought us to Tibe’s house. Sara was welcomed with love and laughter and has spent the last 3 years being beautifully cared for while entertaining the other residents. June 2024, she was diagnosed with lung cancer which had already metastasized. The quick-moving cancer destroyed her hip and she was put in hospice care on September 25.

Sara is survived by her children Jonathan and Dorothy (Kori), her sisters, Judi (Ron), Daphne (Bob) and Betty, her beloved grandchildren Nicholas (Ariana), Marina, Jack, Lana, Gwendolyn and Everett, her great- grandchildren Camille, Logan and step-great-granddaughter Selena, numerous nieces and nephews who spent summers and breaks with Aunt Sara, her Bahá’í community and her caregiver, Tibe Gessesew, and her family at the Tender Care 2 Adult Family Home who showered her with love and provided the perfect audience for her non-stop talking.

Sara’s body will be interred at the Edmonds Memorial Cemetery and a Celebration of Life will take place this spring.

Dorothy and Jonathan would like to thank all our friends, family and Sara’s Bahá’í community for their support during hospice care and after.