Mary was born to a farming family in Finningley, Yorkshire, England. During the Second World War, they lived close to an RAF bomber base. Mary had a story that she frequently recounted that when flight crews were doing their training, if a German raid were imminent, the airfield’s lights would be turned off to hide it from the air, so the crews couldn’t see where to land and ending up crashing. She went to a small school in her remote village and left at the age of 15 to work in the local grocery store. Wanting something better, she enrolled in night school to learn typing and shorthand, at which she became proficient, leading to her subsequent career as an administrative secretary.

In 1960 she got a job as secretary to the professor of automobile engineering at what is now Cranfield University, where Peter arrived later as a post-graduate engineering student. There was a strong mutual attraction. One reason that Mary liked Peter was because of his enthusiasm for foreign travel. Their relationship was put to the test in 1965 when he took a job as an engineering lecturer for a year in Riyadh, Saudi-Arabia. They wrote back and forth constantly, and Mary kept all the letters, which provide a fascinating account of life in the Middle East. In 1967 they married and had a son, Giles.

In 1968, Peter took a job with Boeing in Seattle expecting that they would stay for a couple of years – in fact, it has turned out to be 58 and counting. In 1969 daughter Pollyanna was born. Mary was a stay-at-home mom until the children were of school age. She did a course in medical transcription and worked at that, both at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue and Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland. She then took another secretarial position with the construction company Ebasco, where she stayed until 1997. The family lived in Renton until 1976, moved to Kirkland for 25 years and finally relocated to Anacortes in 2001.

Mary’s interests outside the home were mainly in volunteer work for the arts. She loved classical music and opera. She served as president to the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra League and was a member of the Magnolia Opera Guild. When she moved to Anacortes she joined the Skagit Opera Guild and enjoyed the performances at McIntyre Hall.

And they did in fact enjoy travel together to many parts of the world, including India, Japan, Russia, and Australia.

She turned a remarkable 95 this year. Not as far unfortunately as her maternal grandmother, who lived to be 102, qualifying for a telegram from the Queen. About five years ago she was diagnosed with dementia. Peter became her full-time carer as long as he could, but five months ago she went to stay at the Rosario Memory Care home in Anacortes, where she was looked after very well and made comfortable until the end.

Mary was a very sociable person, had a large circle of friends and was loved by all who knew her. She had a good life, was blessed with two wonderful children and their spouses, Greg, and Daisy, and was the proud grandmother of Nick and Madeline.

She will be missed by her family and her community.

A celebration of life is being planned for next spring. Bookmark this direct link to her memorial site, to check for updates: www.evanschapel.com/obituary/mary-dowden