Obituary

Watastalum Mary George, beloved mother, grandmother, friend, and minister passed away on March 9, 2024, at the age of 69. She was born on February 23, 1955, in Bellingham, WA, and married to the late Kenny George. 

Affectionately known as “Momma Bear” and “Mother Mary,” her passing hollows in the hearts of those who knew and loved her. Her legacy persists, as her impression generates a new beginning for her, and those who live on in her wake; hollowed reeds, to be filled with her strength, guidance, resilience, belief, love, and laughter, must be carried on. 

Mary was a kind and loving woman; she was fiercely devoted to her beloveds’  well-being, always putting the emergent needs of her community before her own and defending them whenever in peril. Her unwavering love came with bravery, ferocity, ample warnings, grace, a shoulder to cry on, a good joke, a quick come-back, good stories, wit, and a hand to hold.

She approached life with a sense of awe and strength, always eager to learn new things and ingeniously find solutions within times of hardship, to listen attentively to a stranger’s story, and expand her heart (and laughs) reach. She found joy in every day and lived with deep gratitude. Her resilience and grace is contagious.  

Belonging to both lineages of the Nooksack tribe and the Lummi Nation, Mary took great pride in her heritage and excelled in traditional activities such as beadwork, fishing, hunting, cooking, and clam digging.

She lived many lives within a single breath. She accompanied birthing women and their children into the world by making traditional harness baskets. She oiled her hands under the hood of any car put out of commission, and she was a Shaker minister, to name a few. 

Mary loved and is survived by her sister, Ada Cooper, her son, Robert Lorenz, her daughter, Mamie Lorenz, her grandson, Jordie Kinley, her granddaughter, Jeri Stack, her grandson, Michael Lorenz, and her sister-in-law, Rachel Cooper, and the generations to come.

She is preceded in death by her father, Mac Cooper, her mother, Clara Humphries, her brothers, Jerry Cooper and Sam Cooper, her sister, Leona Cooper, her daughter, Rose Ann Lorenz, her grandson, Randy Tom Jr., and her husband, Kenny George and all the relatives that have come before. 

Watastalum Mary George will be deeply missed and fondly remembered- on a clear day, by the river, where the breeze and the cedars meet the sea, in the light and the darkness of the moon, where creatures leap and echo across its phases.