Twenty five years ago, Stephanie Bower lost one of her closest friends.
Sarah Pearson, her husband Rod, and their two daughters — Rachel, 6, and Grace, almost 2 — were among the 88 passengers and crew who died on Jan. 31, 2000, when Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed into the Pacific Ocean, west of Ventura, California.
“It is the single most traumatic event of my entire life. And it didn't even happen to me directly,” said Bower, who still lives in Seattle.
The Pearsons were one of two families from Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood who died in the crash. Their eldest daughter, Rachel, loved going to the playground at Soundview Terrace Park. But the playground, at West Wheeler Street and 11th Avenue West, was rundown and deemed unsafe by the city. The narrow hillside park was overgrown and in need of attention.
So, amid their shock and grief, the Pearsons’ neighbors came together to clean up and renovate the park. And they got the playground named after Rachel.
Bower, who has a background in architecture, led the project.
An act of love
“I think a lot of people needed to work on something to process their grief, including me,” Bower said.
She contacted Seattle Parks and Recreation. Fundraising flyers generated donations from friends and strangers alike. Local businesses and unions pitched in.
Three years after the crash, and some $360,000 later, the renovated Soundview Terrace Park opened with the name “Rachel’s Playground” added to the sign.
Just outside the playground is a remembrance circle with 88 tiny bronze stars — one for each victim of the crash. There is also a plaque with the names of all the Queen Anne residents who were killed. And there are hand-painted tiles honoring the victims, many of them in memory of the children from the neighborhood who had died.
Throughout the park, there are daisies — Rachel’s favorite flower.
Bower used to water all of the park’s flowers and trees by herself. Eventually, that became too much to manage. But it’s still a special place for her; she loves to see children play on the playground and people walk through the remembrance circle.
“That’s what probably makes me the happiest — to see how the park carries on in their honor,” Bower said.
A gift for the giver
While renovating the park, Bower met Rachel’s grandfather, Ralph Pearson, who was one of the volunteers.
“He always had tears in his eyes and always gave us huge, warm hugs,” she said. “He was so appreciative of what everyone was doing. At Christmastime he would stop by the houses on our block and bring a Christmas present for the kids.”
One year, he delivered a gift to Bower: a Hickory Farms package of cheese, crackers and sausage, and a card.
“Inside the card was a piece of paper. It was a check. And I stopped breathing,” she said. The check was for $10,000.
Bower called Pearson and asked if the money was for the park. He said it was for her to do something nice for herself.
Bower put the money in a bank account, where it sat for a few years. She wanted to do something with the money that would improve her life and honor the friends she had lost.
Bower eventually used it to fund a nearly month-long trip to India with a friend, where she rediscovered her love — and talent — for sketching.
“I filled two sketchbooks and had an amazing trip,” she said. “I came home, met up with Urban Sketchers Seattle, talked to somebody who said I should enter an architectural illustration competition. So I did, and one of my sketches from India won first prize internationally. That kicked off a giant wave of wonderful things that have changed my life.”
Bower went on to win fellowships to study drawing in France and Italy and has traveled all over the world to teach. She’s also written three books.
At the end of her first book, she thanked Ralph. Bower said that gratitude stays with her, even today.
“Out of the worst trauma of my entire life came a life-changing gift that’s allowed me to follow my lifelong dreams,” she said. “I have wanted to do this my whole life, and because of Ralph’s extraordinary gift, it sparked a new life for me, so I am eternally grateful.”
Ralph died in 2013. But, like the playground named after his granddaughter, his legacy lives on in the life that he changed with his kindness.
