For this week’s Beachcomber, I was deeply honored to write a news obituary, recounting the long and beautiful life of a woman known fittingly on Vashon as Mother Steen.
A news obituary is a rare chance for a journalist to tell a complete story, from beginning to end, and the story of Barbara Steen’s life is an epic one that also tells the story of this small island in the middle of Puget Sound — a place she cherished and believed was worth fighting for.
Islander Todd Pearson, who was fortunate enough to have known Barbara since his childhood, spoke at her funeral, describing her as “an immovable object and also an unstoppable force, all at the same time.”
And indeed, Barbara, who died in late December at the age of 93, was both a keeper and shaper of Vashon’s history and a shining example of the island’s highest values.
Her work to better her hometown was legendary. She gave her time, the treasure of her bright mind, and her boundless energy to bolster Vashon’s institutions, its public places, and its people — defining the term “pillar of the community.”
How did she hold up the island for so long? After all, she also managed to work full-time for almost 40 years, raise a family, sustain a long and happy marriage and many close friendships, and also pursue a dizzying array of personal interests and self-improvement projects.
She was only one person, and yet, she accomplished so much.
We all don’t have Barbara’s remarkable energy, her personal resilience and charm, or perhaps even the deep faith that motivated so many of her good works. Yet, we can all take away lessons from her life.
In a letter to the editor of The Beachcomber, written a few years ago to urge islanders to vote for a school bond measure to replace a track that she had insisted be built almost 50 years before, she said a profound thing.
“It is our job, as community members, to back the school board and see that we stay on top of things, just as we do in our own homes,” she wrote.
Barbara’s own longtime home on Vashon Highway was a bright and bustling place where Girl Scout and Cub Scout meetings were convened, where friends and family gathered, where a garden was tended, and where she dutifully polished and waxed a hardwood floor built by her husband’s father, even though she was known to complain about the task.
But Barbara’s idea of “home” extended well past her own property lines.
She treated the whole island as her home — a distinct place that she had a responsibility to care for, as well.
Wherever she saw problems — a neglected and overgrown cemetery without running water to help her tend her mother’s and grandparents’ graves, a dusty golf course where it wasn’t fun to play the game she loved, a high school that didn’t have a track for student-athletes to train on and compete — her mind turned to solutions that she could personally be a part of, and then she marshaled whatever additional forces were necessary to change what needed to be changed.
She didn’t wait for anyone else to make Vashon better. She dove right in and did it herself because she believed our island home was a place to pridefully protect.
Look around you. What needs fixing now on our island? What structures and systems are sagging and need support? What needs to be polished and shined?
Let Mother Steen’s example of a purpose-driven life inspire you to take action, and make a difference on Vashon.
— Elizabeth Shepherd, Editor
