Annabel Elizabeth Teichroew Peterson

"This is my Mom!", "This is my Grandma Annabel!", "I'd like you to meet my Aunt Annabel", "You must meet Annabel": Kids, grandkids, great grandkids, nieces, nephews, their children, neighbors and friends and significant others, and friends of friends of all of the above, the very young, the very old, shy people, extroverts, the disabled, all felt it a privilege to know and to be able to introduce Annabel. And she felt privileged to know all of them. For many, Annabel was the mother, grandmother, aunt or friend that had been lost or not before found. Annabel died Monday, March 17 in Stanwood WA, half way into the completion of her 100 ^th year.

Annabel raised her five children in the Bryant/Roosevelt district of Seattle. Annabel's husband, Nels (dec'd 1991), attended the inaugural class of Bryant Elementary in 1918. All of their five children attended Bryant and Roosevelt, as did two grandchildren. A great-grandchild now attends Bryant, thus extending the line of family attendees at Bryant Elementary well into a tenth decade. Annabel, too, had attended Roosevelt High School, graduating with honors in the Great Depression year of 1931. Born October 2, 1914, the second of the seven children of Herman and Stella Teichroew, in St James Minnesota and raised as a child of the very rural northern prairie, Annabel at age 7 left with her family from their home near Ft. Buford, ND and in 1921 headed west to Seattle. Annabel's Seattle area roots ran, and now through many of her descendants continue to run, very deep.

While Seattle was her "home", for more than 40 years Annabel resided on Camano Island, the shore of Puget Sound just outside her door. Annabel's roots at her Camano Island beach home also ran deep. In the late 1930's her young and growing family first began spending summer vacations at the same location which later became their summer home. When Nels retired, their summer home became their full time residence. There, she continued her outreach to others, learning to drive at age 65 and volunteering at the Food Bank in Stanwood. When not engaged with her human counterparts, often in the week days of our long winters, her only visitors were the wild songbirds, beach gulls and crows. Annabel appreciated their company and they sought hers. Intelligent and perceptive, crows, especially, "spoke" to her. An accomplished artist, her many paintings captured her love of nature and her concern for the plight of Native Americans, particularly of the northern plains people she had known or observed as a young child.

Annabel is survived by her brother, John Teichroew, of Whidbey Island and by her children: Susan Schnebele ( David), Harpers Ferry W VA; Peter E. Peterson (Janice), Issaquah; Ann Monroe (Robert), Camano Island; Harold Peterson (Loni), Orcas Island; and Nels C. Peterson (Marie), Seattle. Also surviving are grandchildren: Heidi Schnebele Nelson, Harpers Ferry W VA; Kristi Schnebele Huber, Leesburg VA; Michael Schnebele, Middleburg, VA; Kaarin Schnebele Nelson, Lovettsville VA; Peter G. Peterson, Seattle; Heather Peterson Meier, Roslyn; Thor Peterson, Champaign-Urbana, Ill; Laura Peterson-Nagy , Seattle; Brock Monroe, Lopez Island; Daniel Monroe, Sammamish; Michael Monroe, Lake Oswego OR; Eric Peterson, Seattle; and Meritt Peterson, Seattle. Annabel is also survived by her nineteen great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. Additionally, Annabel is survived by her many caring nieces and nephews and their many children and grandchildren, all of whom she counted among her own.

A final thanks from Annabel and her family to the many kind, caring and professional employees at the Josephine Sunset Home in Stanwood and to the many residents there that Annabel befriended.

No services are planned. A private celebration of Annabel's life will be held mid-summer this year. Annabel's favorite charities were those benefitting the needs of children including, among others, the Pediatric Interim Care Center, Kent, WA which her late sister and State legislator, June Leonard, helped to establish.