KIRKLAND — Hilda and Tom Woods loved well.
They loved each other, their daughters, their extended family and their friends.
As a recording of the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love” played, a pre-service slideshow rolled out photo after photo of the Woodses expressing their love. It was there at family meals, Halloween parties, fishing trips, impromptu dances, graduations, weddings and the births of grandchildren.
Nearly 600 people crowded into the Washington Cathedral on Woodinville-Redmond Road east of Kirkland on Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the lives of the couple. The Woodses were killed Nov. 29 in one of the most deadly suspected drunken-driving crashes in Snohomish County history.
Hilda Woods, 62, was a retired administrative secretary with the Lake Washington School District, where she worked for more than 20 years. Tom Woods, 58, worked for a New Jersey-based electrical component business owned by members of Hilda’s extended family.
Their friends and Clearview neighbors, Brad and Melissa Agerup, also were killed in the crash on Highway 9 at 108th Street NE in Marysville.
Prosecutors last week filed vehicular homicide charges against 27-year-old Matthew C. McDonald of Snohomish. Prosecutors allege McDonald was drunk when he ran a stop sign and crashed a Ford Explorer into the Hyundai sedan carrying the Agerups and the Woodses.
The Agerups’ teenage daughters, Sarah and Katie Agerup, attended the Woodses’ funeral, following a service Sunday for the Agerups at Mariner High School, where Brad Agerup taught.
The Woodses, married for more than 30 years, lived in Kirkland until the late 1990s. Hilda Woods attended Spanish-English church services at Washington Cathedral.
Hilda and Tom met in El Paso, Texas, where he fell in love with her and her two daughters.
Debbie and Susie became Tom’s daughters, and they paid tribute Tuesday to the stepfather they knew only as Dad.
“Dad was my inspiration, the one who helped me with my homework and my bloody noses,” Debbie Howell, 39, said. “Mom was my hero. She taught me to be a strong woman and not take crap from anyone.”
“The life lessons (they) taught me will help me get through this,” Howell said.
Susie Woods, the middle daughter, defined love by moments in her life.
“Love is my dad taking on two kids who were not his own. … Love is letting us go and then letting us come back. … Love is Mom’s salsa,” Woods, 37, said.
Tom and Hilda’s daughter Cynthia East, 27, said she will never forget how much she was loved.
“Mom was the life of any party. She was ageless, beautiful and passionate,” East said. “Dad loved the outdoors so much. I will always see oceans and eagles and mountains through his eyes.”
Dave Nakanishi, married to Tom Woods’ sister Kim, described family gatherings and the vacations they shared.
“We thought we had so much more time to make so many more memories,” Nakanishi said.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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