Nadene Pasinski

  Nadene Pasinski, 89, died peacefully holding her daughter’s hand at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham on Jan. 20, 2018, following a severe stroke. She left this world on her mother’s birthday, the same day as her mother’s death in 1994, and at the same age; we believe there is a joyful celebration in heaven at this reunion. Nadene’s family surrounded her the last days of her life singing, talking, praying, laughing, crying and telling her of our great love for her until her death in the early morning hours. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”
  Nadene was born in Seattle on Oct. 18, 1928 to Carl Meredith Buchanan and Ercy Ellen Cole Buchanan. She enjoyed much laughter and mischief-making with her older brother Don and her two younger brothers Carl and Garner. When Nadene was 11, the family moved from Seattle to Sitka, Alaska. She always claimed to be a bit of a tomboy, growing up with brothers, and told stories about protecting her younger siblings from bullies on the way to school. Those who knew and loved her can testify to her feisty, protective spirit, never one to give in easily and always ready to help those in need.
  Nadene attended Sitka High School where she was active as a cheerleader and a member of the basketball team. Her school days were spent on the water and islands around Sitka, boating and swimming the channel or ice skating on the lake in winter. Summers she worked with her friend Polly on a fish buyer. She skipped school the day World War II ended to tell the lookout on the mountain that the war was finally over.
  She met the love of her life, Eugene “Sketch” Pasinski, on a blind date in Sitka, where he was serving with the U.S. Army after the war. They dated three months and made a lifelong commitment of marriage on Oct. 12, 1946. Nadene and Sketch were married for 55 years until his death in January 2002 and she always said there was no one as handsome as her husband.
  Their first child, Eugene Pasinski Jr., was born in Sitka in 1947, followed by a move to Glassport, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of dad Eugene Pasinski Sr. Then in 1952 the family made their home in Ferndale, where Nadene’s grandparents had settled after moving to Whatcom County in 1889, and where she lived for the next 66 years. Nadene and Sketch’s daughter Leslie was born in 1956 and their daughter Terri in 1958. For several years they lived on a little piece of farmland at the top of Ferndale’s Olson Road until moving to family property on Lummi Bay. Nadene loved the open view of the water and the summer picnics on the beach with friends and family.
  Nadene was an excellent homemaker: sewing, canning, baking and always providing home-cooked meals for her family. Her children’s friends enjoyed her company and would sometimes come to the house just to chat with her. She worked summers at the Kelly-Farquhar food processing plant doing FDA grading and as a registrar in the early days of Whatcom Community College. She volunteered at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham as a eucharistic minister, praying with the patients as she made her rounds. Nadene was an active member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Ferndale and a member of St. Mary’s Guild. She taught Sunday school at St. Joachim on the Lummi Reservation for several years. Sketch and Nadene had many friends, especially with the relocated Mobil Oil families from Olean, New York.
  Nadene enjoyed golfing, bowling, sewing, knitting, dancing, dressing up at Halloween, visiting with friends over coffee, preparing for Christmas and Easter, teaching her children silly songs, playing cards with friends, taking road trips, camping at the Saskens’ property, mushroom hunting, clam digging, beach combing, feeding the birds, attending her grandchildren’s events, and snuggling with Sketch on the couch. She regretted that she never got her pilot’s license; it would have suited her daredevil nature.
  Nadene and Sketch made frequent trips to see family in Pennsylvania, with friends to Reno, and to the Oregon Coast to visit her mom Ercy and step-father Wesley Wylie. They moved to Saudi Arabia for work shortly before Sketch retired and traveled extensively in Asia and Europe. In later years on their anniversary they would hike to Artist Point at Mount Baker to enjoy the October foliage.
  She is survived by her son Eugene Pasinski Jr., and wife Sonja Wingard of Bellingham; daughter Leslie Drury and husband Charles of Ferndale, and daughter Terri Melcher and husband Michael of Bellingham; grandchildren Sketch Pasinski and wife Wendy, Cutzi Jobes and husband Justin, Morgan Pasinski and husband Jamie Hudson, Keenan Campbell and husband Jacob, Cole Melcher and girlfriend Casey Duncan, Cruz Melcher, Abbey Drury, Gabriel Drury; and nine great-grandchildren: EJ and Barlow Pasinski, and Steele, Adia, Xochi, Tobin and Jonatha Jobes, Eli and Leo Campbell. Her grandchildren were the light of her life and seeing them always brought a twinkle to her eye or a special wink. She is also survived by four sisters-in-law: Virginia Buchanan, Melitta Buchanan, Lavonne Martin and Beverly Buchanan. All were uniquely special to her throughout her life and welcomed as sisters.
  Nadene was predeceased by her husband, Eugene Pasinski (January 2002); brothers Donald Buchanan, Carl Buchanan Jr. and Garner Buchanan; father Carl Buchanan Sr. mother Ercy Cole Buchanan; and step-father Wesley Wylie.
  Nadene will be remembered by her many acquaintances and family as a generous-hearted, deeply caring woman. If she had it within her means to support someone or volunteer her time and talents, you could count on her to be there for you. She will be missed.
  Please share memories of Nadene in the online obituary at www.molesfarewelltributes.com. Donations in Nadene’s name may be made to Animals as Natural Therapy.