Celebrating life under a maple tree

31 Oct 2011 06:25
Written by Woodinville Weekly Staff

Photo by Linda McCune Lee Gray, left, with daughter Lisa Adair

Each of us deals with grief in our own way. For Lee Gray, she found it hard to part with her late husband’s ashes for three years. Gary Gray fought pancreatic cancer in the usual and stalwart manner with which he approached life but succumbed in 2008. Mrs. Gray was a fifth grade teacher at Hollywood Hill Elementary in Woodinville with 30 years in the Northshore School District. She was Mrs. Rowe before she married Gary Gray.

“Many years ago before I was the volunteer sexton of the Woodinville Cemetery, Lee and I worked together at the school district’s Camp Casey outdoor experience for fifth graders where we taught marine biology,” said Linda McCune, a former marine biologist whose children attended Hollywood Hill Elementary.

Lee and Gary bought a Woodinville Cemetery plot in 1998, never thinking they’d need it anytime soon. They retired to Lynden, Wash., where they remodeled their home and cooked exquisite dinners.

“Lee had a beautiful headstone installed last month on their plot at the cemetery,” said McCune, “and Lee’s daughter Lisa Adair joined her and together we celebrated Gary’s life with a bottle of Pinot Noir that he and a friend bottled in 2007. We added bread and cheese as well as Thai hors d’ouvres from the restaurant across the street.”

Gary’s ashes now rest in the shade of a huge maple tree.

For more information about the Woodinville Cemetery: www.woodinvillecemetery.org.

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