In our journey there are thorns of this world, we all face. Dementia/Aphasia were the thorns Lily Yamada faced. It robbed her of her voice, her ability to walk/move/stay awake and came with multiple seizures which were hard for her to recover from. Lily Yamada died peacefully on August 7, 2019 and is soaring with Angels next to Jesus and the thorns of this world no longer sting her.

Lily Uriko Kuwada was born on September 2, 1935 in Borger, Tx in Hutchinson County to Masao and Kio Kuwada. She had two step-siblings/cousins (which she loved to tell the story of but I still don’t understand it), Henry Nakashima and “Rose” Setoguchi. She attended First Baptist Church of Borger, TX and had a core group of lifetime friends, (Glenda Guyton and preceeded in death Myra Kaplan, Charlene Blackburn, and Virginia Nelson).

After graduation from Borger high school she attended Mary Hardin Baylor girls’ University and transferred to Colorado University, (CU). While at CU, she met the love of her life, Frank Yamada. They were married by Winifred Moore, then pastor of First Baptist church of Borger, TX on September 8, 1957.

Frank and Lily relocated to Seattle during the Seattle world’s fair and Takashi Yamada, their only son was born. Although Frank and Lily wanted a large family, Lily had issues having children. They felt they were blessed with one son after complications and decided to be thankful/grateful for the gift they were given.

Lily was a stay at home mom but started to transition to the working world when Takashi was in elementary school. She started by being active at Victory Baptist Church, Sunday School Teacher and especially preparing the weekly bulletin for Sunday service, to preparing people’s tax returns, to working for the Japanese Agricultural Training Council, and eventually retiring from the Boeing Company.

One of the job titles she had was large scale production programmer, Lily never wrote a program for the Boeing Company. She was great at project manager, before anyone knew what that was, and knew what resources she could use and got the job done. Everyone wanted to help Lily because she was a kind soul and loving person.

She enjoyed RVing, bunco, cards, dominoes, traveling, Elvis, Time Life presents the songs of the 40s-90s and spending time with family/friends. Lily was famous for Christmas cookies, spritz cookies and always having a presents/gifts for everyone.

She adored getting to know Takashi’s wife Mary Yamada and her grandson Dallas Thueringer over the last 4 years.

Lily was a devout Christian and always was smiling, as Frank notes “her big beautiful happy smile and she was a caring/thoughtful person”. In her passing, everyone has noted “her smile” in remembering Lily. She leaves behind her husband Frank Yamada, son Takashi Yamada (Mary wife) and grandson Dallas Thueringer

She is smiling at all of us and her memories will be in our hearts. Thank you for being a part of her life and she loved every one of us.