My sister was born Susan but soon became Za because I couldn't say Susan and it stuck (with family at least).  She was born in Miami, Flroida because our risk-taking father liked to fly airplanes to Cuba and race sports cars.  After our father died in 1957, our mother packed us up in the back of a Chevy station wagon and drove us across the country to California to join our large Irish Catholic extended family.  We lived in Mission San Jose (now Fremont) for a year and attended Saint Mary of the Palms, School for Girls and after a year, moved to Pacific Palisades which was closer to the Burke clan.  She attended Corpus Christi grammar school and Marymount High School.  In 1969, she started Seattle University and graduated in 1973 and spent a year in Americorps in Alaska before returning to warm Southern California.  She worked at Vandenberg Air Force Base when the space shuttle was being developed.  She then started working for McDonnell Douglas before relocating to the Seattle area in the 1980's.  She worked for Eddie Bauer for about 12 years and our family were recipients of many a warm coat and comforter.  She began working for Alaska Airlines in 2005 - it was really her dream job.  About 5 years ago, she began to have some kidney problems and was eventually placed on dialysis while awaiting a kidney.  Our family was all happy to see her at my Aunt Jean's grand 90th birthday party in Marysville, CA on July 17, 2010.  She was able to lug all of her dialysis equipment there!  She received a kidney in June of 2013 and returned to work with her Alaska Airlines family.  In April, she had a wonderful flight with her Alaska Airlines co-workers to Juneau to see the Mendenhall Glacier.  She and I attended Little Shop of Horrors at the 5th Avenue Theater here in Seattle on April 20th - we had season tickets.  She had fallen and had a huge "goose egg" above her right eye but she thought it was because she got dizzy and fell during the night.  It turned out to be a brain tumor that was sadly caused by the kidney transplant.  It's called post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder and this caused her to get lymphona (a type of cancer) in her brain.  She had surgery and chemo but she was not able to fend off infection and died peacefully on June 4th, 2014.  She heard from many of you while she was in the hospital and many of you were so supportive of her during her health problems over the years.  Thank you so much.  I was so happy to meet many of her friends and co-workers over the last few years.  I thank you all for your love and support during her good and bad times.  Please add memories, pictures, thoughts - I would love to hear from you.  

Love, Ann