Archive for December, 2009
Evergreen Washelli Virtual Tour
Thursday, December 31st, 2009Grief Support Resources
Monday, December 28th, 2009
Grieving is a very personal and individual experience
You will receive a specially prepared folder of articles, checklists and other information on grief, as well as business matters you might not have thought about. Every packet is custom designed to meet each family’s specific needs. Every loss has different issues.
During a home visit, your personal family service advisor will provide you with necessary documents and an opportunity for us to answer any questions or concerns you may have. Bereavement takes its toll both physically and emotionally. Let us show you how we can ease that burden, and show you that at Evergreen Washelli we truly care. We would also like to suggest that you take advantage of our Daily Grief Support where you can receive free insights and words of encouragement in your email every day for an entire year.
Tour of Bothell Funeral Home
Saturday, December 26th, 2009Abbey View Cemetery Tour
Friday, December 25th, 2009Abbey View Memorial Park was founded by the Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park in 1953. Abbey View is a quiet cemetery of 82 acres in Brier, located between Kenmore and Mountlake Terrace, just north of Lake Forest Park. Abbey View is truly unique, nestled in a gentle hillside, overlooking a scenic lake as well as the Cascade Mountains. The quiet charm and serenity of Abbey View offers families and visitors a special peace of mind that comes when a loved one is remembered in quiet reflection.
Abbey View offers a variety of burial, entombment and cremation options including:
Family Estates
An individual or family can design the perfect private garden estate to accommodate as many or as few people as desired. This can be burial space, cremation space, a private mausoleum — or a combination of any or all of these forms of memorialization.
Lawn Crypts
The Glacier Lawn Crypt section provides a modern and affordable burial option. Modern engineering and construction methods are used to create a well-drained section of pre-placed concrete burial liners, both single and double-depth. This is a beautiful yet economical burial option for both individuals and couples.
Traditional Ground Burial
Abbey View has a plentiful selection of traditional ground-burial sections in several locations throughout the cemetery.
Entombment
The Abbey Glen Garden Mausoleum provides an affordable alternative for those who prefer above-ground placement.
Options for placement and memorialization of cremated remains at Abbey View include the following:
Serenity Cove Columbarium
Located in a beautiful, peaceful chapel setting, our glass-front columbarium allows for visible creative and personalized memorialization for individuals or multiple family members. Sheltered and handicapped-accessible, the Serenity Cove Columbarium provides comfort and convenience.
Glacier Vista Columbarium
Nestled in the gentle hillside, overlooking the Cascade Mountains, this option is available for those preferring outdoor above-ground placements of cremated remains. This granite columbarium contains niches that can hold either single or companion placements.
Tree-Ring Cremation Garden
A new concept in cremation memorialization, a Tree-Ring Garden is a small, elegantly landscaped garden providing for economical individual placement of cremated remains. There are two such gardens available at Abbey View.
Traditional Cremation Gardens
We offer several traditional cremation ground-burial options including the Abbey Glen and Cascade View sections. Each grave can hold up to two cremated remains.
Cemetery Tours for Teachers
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009The Legend of Genanasimgat, as told by the Haida Totem Pole
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Haida Tribe Totem Pole at Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park
The Orpheus legend, where a man follows his beloved wife into the land of death in order to bring her back, is found in many cultures. Evergreen-Washelli’s totem pole depicts one of the Haida versions of the legend.
Genanasimgat had a beautiful wife. One day the hunters spied a rare white sea-otter. Genanasimgat’s mother-in-law, who was the wife of the chief, asked him to kill the otter for her so she could make a blanket. He went out in a canoe and shot the otter with an arrow. While his mother-in-law was skinning it, a drop of blood fell on the fur, so she asked her daughter to wash it.
The young woman took the skin to the beach, but while she was washing it, it drifted into deep water. She pursued it, and suddenly two orcas came out of the water. One of them put the wife on his back behind his dorsal fin and they swam away with her.
Genanasimgat followed her to the bottom of the sea, where he met Crane Woman. In exchange for tobacco, she hid him from the orcas under her breast feathers. He had a number of other adventures, including being helped to hide by a giant slave in return for tobacco, before finally rescuing his wife and escaping home with her.
The totem pole shows the Crane with Genanasimgat under her breast feathers. He is holding a tobacco pouch and has a marten on his lap. The next figure may be Genanasimgat or the slave. The reason for his fearful expression and frogs under his hat is unclear. Under that is the wife riding on the back of the killer whale. She is holding the whale’s dorsal fin, and the whale has a white otter or seal in its mouth. The identity of the figure at the base of the pole is unknown.
In another version of the story, the wife is unfaithful with a prince of the sea monsters. Genanasimgat kills her lover and, in revenge, she is kidnapped by an orca with the assistance of the sea-otters that were her husband’s prey. In this version, Genanasimgat uses mountain goat fat for his bribe, so the pouch may contain fat rather than tobacco and the fgure at the base of the pole may represent the wife’s lover.
Read about the rediscovery and the history of the totem pole on the Seattle Times.
Notable Individual: John Cheshiahud
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Cheshiahud and Madeline.
Cheshiahud is one of the rare exceptions, as he befriended David Denny, one of the integral members of the Denny Party, who founded Seattle. Cheshiahud stayed on in an area that was later prohibited to Natives, and Denny gave him property in the area just south of Bellevue, Washington. He carved canoes for the Denny Party. After the death of his first wife, he sold the property and moved to a reservation to live with his daughter.
John Cheshiahud is interred at the Washelli Cemetery beside his first wife, Lucy Annie. A new six-mile trail in Seattle has recently been named in his honor, the Cheshiahud Lake Union Loop.
Some remarkable photographs of Cheshiahud and his wife can be seen at the Lake Union History site.
Notable Individual: David Denny
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
David Denny, one of Seattle's founders.
At the time of its inception, the area where Evergreen Washelli is located was known as Oak Lake, a full day’s carriage ride from downtown via Ballard, Seattle, Washington. David Denny owned land by the lake, and when the old Seattle Cemetery was to become Denny Park he moved the remains of his infant son from there to his property at Oak Lake.
David Denny moved his family’s plot from Capitol Hill to the new burial ground, and over time the number of burials increased, usually by family members and associates of the Denny Party. For more information, check out this spotlight on David Denny in 10 Who Shaped Seattle by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Notable Individual: Judge Thomas Burke
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Judge Thomas Burke
During the period of anti-Chinese agitation in Seattle 1885-1886 Burke, along with the sheriff and many prominent citizens, opposed the popular movement and when the two sides met he was among the Home Guard. In that clash one rioter was killed and Burke found himself charged with murder, though he had not fired a shot, the charges were later dismissed. As a lawyer Burke donated time for clients who could not afford his services. He was active in developing our public school system and was on the board for a time.
His most important contribution to the city of Seattle though, was being an instrumental factor in bringing the Northern Pacific railroad to Seattle rather than its competitor Tacoma. He died in 1925, while making a speech at a peace conference in New York.
Spring Tours as Evergreen Washelli
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Join Us for the Spring Season of Evergreen Washelli's Guided Cemetery Tours.
These guided tours will explore the lives of notable persons interred at Evergreen Washelli Columbarium and Cemetery, as well as historical features at the memorial park. Join us in learning about the lives of Medal of Honor recipients, eccentric entrepreneurs, Duwamish chiefs, and the pioneers who built the city of Seattle.
Evergreen Washelli Cemetery tours are perfect for history buffs, civic groups, church groups, senior citizens, genealogists, and classrooms of all ages. Tours at the memorial park include Heroes and Dignitaries, K-5 Children’s Tour, The Arborists Tree Tour led by Arthur Lee Jacobson, and our self-guided walking tour.
We are currently seeking volunteers to attend and eventually guide these tours throughout the rest of the year. If you like history and love to give tours, please call (425) 483-0555 or email HMitchell@washelli.com if you are interested in becoming a tour guide.