Christine Marie (Werner) Mochel

2/26/1949 – 11/19/2021

There are so many wonderful ways Chris made a positive impact on her community. She will be remembered by friends and family as intelligent, helpful, lively, outgoing, playful, colorful, loving and truly engaged throughout her life. Those who met her would become friends in moments and would be recognized and remembered for life. Chris lived her life open and ready for everything, even to bravely facing the terminal glioblastoma cancer that ultimately took her life over the past year.

Chris was born into her Boeing family while they were temporarily assigned to Wichita, KS. Later, the Werner family moved back to the Pacific Northwest and Mercer Island. Chris is remembered by childhood friends as a strong student and always involved in organizing school and community activities, including (to nobody’s surprise) through Pep Club. Summers were spent at the Mercer Island Beach Club, life guarding, water skiing and team swimming in Lake Washington before there was a pool. Winter brought snow skiing with friends and family and teaching children with the Fiorini Ski School.

Chris was a proud “double dawg” having graduated from the University of Washington School of Nursing and later returning to obtain her MN, specializing in psychiatric nursing and counseling. She was certified as an ARNP and practiced child and adolescent counseling through several community mental health services and her own private counseling practice. She later practiced “counseling-through-the- band-aid-door” for over 20 years as a school nurse with Seattle Public Schools, at Hawthorne Elementary in the Rainier Valley and Wing Luke Elementary on Beacon Hill, always dedicated to the well-being of all her students.

Chris and her husband Don met through friends while at the UW and they married in 1973. Together they enjoyed travel, sports, boating, skiing, gardening, theater, volunteering, friends, and family. Their daughter Casey was born in 1983 and followed Chris through the same Mercer Island schools. A very close-knit family, the three spent 38 wonderful years playing, exploring, learning, and laughing.

Chris was a loving wife and mom, a true friend to all and a mentor to many. She was a genuinely vibrant personality and will be missed for her impact on the world around her. Remembrances can be made to Mercer Island Youth and Family Services at www.miyfs.org. A celebration of life full of color, light, stories and laughter will be planned for the new year and information will be available later at www.caringbridge. org/visit/chriswernermochel.