Obituary of May Christensen Liming

May Christensen Liming

May 13, 1928 – March 4, 2022

Bothell, Washington – Long-time Bellevue resident May Liming, 93, mother / grandmother / great-grandmother / educator / writer / musician / friend, passed away peacefully at home. May was born in South Gate, California to Einer and Joanna Christensen, the eldest of their two children. She grew up in Huntington Park and graduated as a student leader from Huntington Park High School. May earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in education from Occidental College, sang joyfully in the Glee Club, served as secretary of Associated Students of Occidental College, was selected “Outstanding Woman of the Senior Class” and was a senior member of Mortar Board national honor society.

May was a woman of strong faith. While in college, she was active in Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) and served as a leader for the MYF Caravan to the Hawaii mission providing leadership training to Christian youth on three islands for one summer during college. May met her future husband, Dan Liming, also a MYF Caravan leader, during the Hawaii mission trip.

During her life, she was a devoted member of First Methodist Church of Huntington Park and Ronald United Methodist Church in Shoreline, Washington. She was an active member of the First Congregational Church, Bellevue, Washington, for 60 years.

May loved music. She sang in the First Congregational Church, Bellevue choir and participated in choir tour performances throughout the world. May always enthusiastically led singing at church, group, and family gatherings. Her choir trips took her to Europe, South Africa, South America, and New Zealand. She traveled several times to Hawaii with friends and family. May enjoyed learning about diverse cultures, meeting people, and she developed lasting relationships with many people around the world. She maintained many life-long friendships including several that started in kindergarten.

May and Dan were married in 1951, and they moved from southern California to Seattle to start new jobs and a family. May taught elementary school in Seattle, and she was a substitute teacher in Bellevue beginning in 1961 while raising their three children. The family enjoyed many car-camping trips, backpacking trips as the children became teens, winter ski school trips, and an epic camping trip throughout the western United States. Everyone could count on May to always gush “ooh, ahh...look at that beautiful mountain!” when Mt. Rainier came into view. Dan divorced May in 1982, and she courageously built a new life for herself.

In addition to her career as an educator, May worked 10 years for a Bellevue swimming pool supply company, and then she supervised the reception department for Horizon House, a Life Plan Community in Seattle. She participated in 15 Elderhostel trips with family or friends in North America, Europe, and Central America before and after her retirement in 1995. May also took her grandchildren on exciting educational trips.

In 2001, May sold her home in Woodridge and moved several miles to Silver Glen Senior Cooperative in Bellevue. May thrived at Silver Glen. She joined the Writer’s Group and continued honing her writing skills, self-publishing numerous imaginative children’s stories and books for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. May was a keen observer of people and life, and she wrote with humility, joy, humor, and passion, journaling her travels and capturing her life experiences in stories and photos shared with and treasured by family and friends. She was a consummate optimist, always seeking the good in people and events. May served on the Silver Glen Board of Directors and as President of the Board, and she remained active on committees and organized interest groups throughout her 21-year residence.

May is survived by her children and their spouses: Steve Liming (Susan), Brian Liming (Wendy), and Sue Carroll (John); six grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; sister-in-law Doris Christensen, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents Einer and Joanna, and her brother LeRoy.

A Celebration of Life and Memorial Service will be held at First Congregational Church, Bellevue on May 15, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. PDT, 11061 N.E. 2^nd St., Bellevue, WA. If you are unable to attend in person, please join our family virtually to live-stream the memorial service at the top entry on either: http://facebook.com/fccbellevue  or http://youtube.com/firstcongregationalchurchbellevue . In lieu of flowers memorial donations in remembrance of May Liming may be made to First Congregational Church, Bellevue, 11061 N.E. 2^nd St., Bellevue, WA  98004.