Clarissa A. Lagrange Obituary (1943 - 2021)

Clarissa A. Lagrange, beautiful, loving and selfless Wife, Mother and Grandmother passed away peacefully on March 17th, 2021. She was 77 years old. Clarissa was born in Managua, Nicaragua on August 6th, 1943. Clarissa left Nicaragua at the age of 13 and moved to San Francisco, California with her parents. She attended high school in San Francisco and lived in the Bay Area for several years. She worked in office job settings and was quite the fashionista. She had style and grace, and everyone always asked her where she shopped for her fabulous clothes. Her hair, makeup and jewelry were always classic and beautiful. In her late 20s, Clarissa moved to Seattle where she met her wonderful husband Rene. She was impressed by his charm, intelligence, quirky sense of humor, integrity, gentleman qualities and sparkly green eyes. They settled in Ballard and had two children, Andre and Flavia. Clarissa was a stay-at-home mom and loved not working and raising her two kids. When she did go back to work, she worked in office settings in the healthcare industry. Clarissa's final job before retirement was for King County Public Health Department as a Spanish interpreter for 15 years. She loved that job. She accompanied the public health nurses on home visits and always went above and beyond to help the families that the public health department served. She would organize the clothing and baby supplies donations, and would make sure she would take the donated items on home visits to new moms in need, or she would have a bag prepared with donated items for new moms that came to the clinic. She was always helping people and truly enjoyed knowing moms and children got what they needed. She was so well liked at the clinic, that the patients would ask for Clarissa by name to be their interpreter in the exam room. She was the most selfless person. Always worrying and caring for others more than herself. Clarissa's biggest love was cooking. She liked to say she was a "Betty Crocker" cook. She loved cooking simple, yet delicious dishes. She was not big into exotic ingredients or spices, just simple ingredients including "love" she would say. She enjoyed following recipes and making up her own. She loved cookbooks with vibrant pictures and had quite an extensive cookbook collection. She especially cherished cooking for her family. She always cooked with fresh ingredients and from scratch. She truly enjoyed family meals with Rene, Andre and Flavia at the kitchen table. She took pride in how her dining room looked with well-appointed decor as the centerpiece and pressed, beautiful tablecloths. If there was a larger gathering at her home, she would do all the cooking herself. Never wanting anyone to bring a dish to share. She would always say it was never going to be as good as her cooking, and she was right. Every once in a while, she would cook a Mexican dish for her husband. Clarissa was also quite the seamstress and crochet artist. For her kids, she made Halloween costumes, Holiday matching outfits, doll matching outfits, crochet stuffed rabbits and Christmas pillows, a First Communion dress, and so much more. She was very talented. Another love was music. She would cook to music, clean the house to music, and sew to music. Clarissa had hundreds of vinyl records and tapes, then CDs. She loved mostly Latin American music - tangos, cumbias, boleros and also enjoyed artists like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and the "oldies". She also enjoyed contemporary music as well. Clarissa loved to dance, and it was not surprising to find her moving her hips in front of the stove while cooking. She had an amazing smile that lit up a room. She loved earrings and they were always a conversation topic. She had them for each holiday and her earrings were always unique, and colorful. She loved to chat with people and loved hearing about people's lives. She was one of those rare people that read the newspaper front to back. One would get in trouble if you were to disturb her while doing so. She was quite well versed in world geography and when she met someone from another country, she was intrigued and loved to ask all sorts of questions about their culture and food. She enjoyed family road trips from Seattle to Mexicali. She would look forward to buying vinyl records then CDs in the Mexicali music stores, and bringing those home along with Mexican vanilla and cajeta, a Mexican caramel. Clarissa was the most devoted wife and mother. She absolutely loved caring for her children, and making sure they had everything they needed. She went to soccer games, baseball games, basketball games and anything else having to do with her kids. She was truly a supportive mom who loved her kids unconditionally. She was their biggest fans. People would say Clarissa was the sweetest, nicest person. She did not have a mean bone in her body. She had a kind and gentle personality that loved to laugh and be with her family. Though she was still a fierce Leo. Clarissa's children were fortunate enough to be by her side in her last days as she took her final breaths. Those that will cherish her memory are, her son, Andre Lagrange, grandchildren Logan and Ameliah, daughter Flavia Lagrange and Mark Hoene, her son-in-law. Clarissa's husband of 50 years, Rene, passed away on March 27th, 2020. They are now dancing together in Heaven. There will be a memorial gathering and burial service but number of attendees are limited. Please email [email protected] for more details if you would like to attend. Please sign the guestbook.