Published: Sunday, August 22, 2010
Lake Stevens woman recalled for her musical passion
As a teen at Alaska's Ketchikan High School, Mary Michele Petrelli wrote a piece for a student newsletter. She offered this advice: "Life is too short to be wasted worrying about what you can't do."
Blind since birth, she was also innately and fiercely independent.
"She was so headstrong and determined about everything," said Petrelli's mother, Solveig Vinje. "Blindness was never her handicap. It was just normal."
With a teenage son, a passion and talent for music, a wicked sense of humor and many friends, Petrelli relished her life despite serious health problems. She had long suffered from diabetes, and was undergoing dialysis several times a week.
Mary Michele Petrelli died Aug. 2 at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. She was 45.
She lived in Lake Stevens with her 16-year-old son John Petrelli, on property where her mother was raised and also has a home.
Steve Smith, a friend from Lake Stevens, said that being a mother was Petrelli's most important role. "Her son was her world," Smith said.
Another friend, Tiffani Phillips, said Mary and John were buddies to a point, but she could set limits and be a strict mom when she needed to be. "Mary was very concerned about having her own independence and raising her son," Phillips said.
Being a mom wasn't Petrelli's entire world. At Central Lutheran Church in Everett, she sang in the choir and performed solos. She was also in the chorus in several musicals with the Northwest Savoyards Musical Theatre Society, an Everett-based group. Vinje remembers her daughter singing in productions of "Fiddler on the Roof," "The Sorcerer," and "Cinderella."
Vinje said her daughter's confidence, intelligence and independence were shining qualities from early childhood, when the family lived in Ketchikan. Mary's father, Joseph Petrelli, worked for Alaska Airlines, and Vinje was a teacher at the school Mary attended. "In kindergarten, she learned the alphabet from plastic block letters," Vinje said. By second grade, Mary was reading Braille, her mother said.
Because services were limited in Ketchikan, Mary attended the Washington State School for the Blind in Vancouver, Wash., for two years. She later stayed with her grandparents, who lived in the Edmonds School District, before returning to Ketchikan for high school. She graduated in 1982 from Ketchikan High School, where she excelled in classes and qualified for an all-state honor choir.
Her high school newsletter article offers a glimpse at how she treasured freedom. "This summer could be called a landmark time in my life. I went alone on the ferry to Sitka to visit friends and take in the summer Chamber Music Festival," she wrote, adding that the trip "really made me feel confident that I was indeed on the road to becoming completely independent."
She was indeed on the road to higher learning and more travel. On a music scholarship, she studied for two years at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. She stayed on in the Tacoma area, living independently and doing volunteer work and other jobs, until shortly after John was born in 1994.
Mary and John moved to Lake Stevens to be close to family.
Along with her mother and son, Mary is survived by aunts Karin Michael and Tresa Kaufmann; cousins Teisha Kaufmann, Elijah Michael, and Erika Miller and her daughter Lorelei, along with relatives in Norway, Italy and Canada.
At birth, Mary was named Berit Maria Petrelli, but her mother said she loved the name Mary and insisted on having it legally changed. "She stuck to her guns. She was not going to be called anything but Mary," Vinje said.
Phillips, Smith and Louise Bell, another close friend, remember a woman who was funny and irreverent. Petrelli loved the TV soap opera "Days of Our Lives." She was a fan of Barry Manilow and The Carpenters, and had gone to a Manilow concert with Phillips at Comcast Arena.
"In our conversations, we'd be laughing so much we'd always end up in good moods," Phillips said.
Smith met Petrelli through eBay. Both collectors, they were bidding on old children's records. "Her two huge passions were old records and music boxes," he said. He remembers how thrilled Petrelli was when she went to Leavenworth for her 45th birthday in July and bought a long-coveted music box.
"Her friendship was an amazing gift," he said.
Louise Bell and Petrelli were close friends in Tacoma 20 years ago. Bell now lives in Yakima. They met through music and church, and their friendship clicked immediately. When John was born, Bell was Mary's labor coach.
Petrelli had such a keen memory that she knew long-ago stories of Bell's children that Bell had forgotten. Petrelli couldn't see colors but said her favorite was purple, which she said conveyed the feeling of twilight or evening, Bell said.
"She was just an absolute joy," Bell said. "She loved life."
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Blind since birth, she was also innately and fiercely independent.
"She was so headstrong and determined about everything," said Petrelli's mother, Solveig Vinje. "Blindness was never her handicap. It was just normal."
With a teenage son, a passion and talent for music, a wicked sense of humor and many friends, Petrelli relished her life despite serious health problems. She had long suffered from diabetes, and was undergoing dialysis several times a week.
Mary Michele Petrelli died Aug. 2 at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. She was 45.
She lived in Lake Stevens with her 16-year-old son John Petrelli, on property where her mother was raised and also has a home.
Steve Smith, a friend from Lake Stevens, said that being a mother was Petrelli's most important role. "Her son was her world," Smith said.
Another friend, Tiffani Phillips, said Mary and John were buddies to a point, but she could set limits and be a strict mom when she needed to be. "Mary was very concerned about having her own independence and raising her son," Phillips said.
Being a mom wasn't Petrelli's entire world. At Central Lutheran Church in Everett, she sang in the choir and performed solos. She was also in the chorus in several musicals with the Northwest Savoyards Musical Theatre Society, an Everett-based group. Vinje remembers her daughter singing in productions of "Fiddler on the Roof," "The Sorcerer," and "Cinderella."
Vinje said her daughter's confidence, intelligence and independence were shining qualities from early childhood, when the family lived in Ketchikan. Mary's father, Joseph Petrelli, worked for Alaska Airlines, and Vinje was a teacher at the school Mary attended. "In kindergarten, she learned the alphabet from plastic block letters," Vinje said. By second grade, Mary was reading Braille, her mother said.
Because services were limited in Ketchikan, Mary attended the Washington State School for the Blind in Vancouver, Wash., for two years. She later stayed with her grandparents, who lived in the Edmonds School District, before returning to Ketchikan for high school. She graduated in 1982 from Ketchikan High School, where she excelled in classes and qualified for an all-state honor choir.
Her high school newsletter article offers a glimpse at how she treasured freedom. "This summer could be called a landmark time in my life. I went alone on the ferry to Sitka to visit friends and take in the summer Chamber Music Festival," she wrote, adding that the trip "really made me feel confident that I was indeed on the road to becoming completely independent."
She was indeed on the road to higher learning and more travel. On a music scholarship, she studied for two years at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. She stayed on in the Tacoma area, living independently and doing volunteer work and other jobs, until shortly after John was born in 1994.
Mary and John moved to Lake Stevens to be close to family.
Along with her mother and son, Mary is survived by aunts Karin Michael and Tresa Kaufmann; cousins Teisha Kaufmann, Elijah Michael, and Erika Miller and her daughter Lorelei, along with relatives in Norway, Italy and Canada.
At birth, Mary was named Berit Maria Petrelli, but her mother said she loved the name Mary and insisted on having it legally changed. "She stuck to her guns. She was not going to be called anything but Mary," Vinje said.
Phillips, Smith and Louise Bell, another close friend, remember a woman who was funny and irreverent. Petrelli loved the TV soap opera "Days of Our Lives." She was a fan of Barry Manilow and The Carpenters, and had gone to a Manilow concert with Phillips at Comcast Arena.
"In our conversations, we'd be laughing so much we'd always end up in good moods," Phillips said.
Smith met Petrelli through eBay. Both collectors, they were bidding on old children's records. "Her two huge passions were old records and music boxes," he said. He remembers how thrilled Petrelli was when she went to Leavenworth for her 45th birthday in July and bought a long-coveted music box.
"Her friendship was an amazing gift," he said.
Louise Bell and Petrelli were close friends in Tacoma 20 years ago. Bell now lives in Yakima. They met through music and church, and their friendship clicked immediately. When John was born, Bell was Mary's labor coach.
Petrelli had such a keen memory that she knew long-ago stories of Bell's children that Bell had forgotten. Petrelli couldn't see colors but said her favorite was purple, which she said conveyed the feeling of twilight or evening, Bell said.
"She was just an absolute joy," Bell said. "She loved life."
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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