Colleen Strand

Colleen Anne Strand passed away peacefully at 2:50 a.m. on December 10, 2013 surrounded by her family and friends. This was a sudden illness that showed up only 12-hours before.

A lifelong resident of Mercer Island, Colleen met Chris Strand as a preschooler at Sunnybeam School, where she claimed that he stole her graham crackers. They began dating at age 17, as students at Mercer Island High School and they married 3 years later, in 1977.

She grew up swimming at the old Mercerdale pool, now the site of the Mercer Island thrift store. Swimming was a large part of her life which she passed on to her many family members including her two children, Kirty and Alex.

Although a self-proclaimed Husky, Colleen attended the Washington State University with her beloved Chris for one year. They then transferred to the Green River Community College to study court reporting. Colleen continued her studies and got her first reporting job at Bernice Johnson & Associates, where she worked for about a year. She left after a year of non-stop traveling and went to work at Dean Moburg & Associates until 1985. In 1985, she went on to start her own business, Seattle Deposition Reporters, with her friend and business partner, Kathy (Anderson) McQueen. Seattle Deposition Reporters is now the largest court reporting firm in the northwest. She continued to run her business until her passing.

Colleen always had a smile and a laugh for everyone and found so much joy in everyone else’s happiness and success. She loved to share pictures and stories of her children and her wonderful son-in-law, Nick. Her two grandchildren, Cade & McKenna, who would frequently walk over from next door to see her, always enjoyed whatever activity she could come up with (and they were definitely fun activities as Chris can attest to).

She is survived by her husband of 37 years, Chris, her sister Janet Hobbs, mother Marian Moss, mother-in-law Shirley Strand, children Kirty Higgs and Alex Strand, grandchildren Cade & McKenna Higgs, as well as many nieces and nephews who she greatly enjoyed.