Amy Jensen
Amy Hillyard Jensen, age 92, passed away peacefully on Sunday, July 2, 2017 in Auburn, Washington. A near-lifelong resident of the Seattle area, Amy’s life was greatly shaped by the joys (and exasperations) of raising and caring for children. This began when, as a child herself, she assumed many caretaking responsibilities of her three younger siblings. At age 19 Amy married her lifelong “love-at-first-sight,” Jay David Jensen, and they soon welcomed eight children into the world. Still not done with parenting at age 65, to keep her promise to her dying daughter Leslie, Amy assumed the role of mothering her three young grandchildren, Les, Mikah, and Jesse Keller, into adulthood.
Amy leaves behind her 5 surviving children, David C. Jensen of Renton, Daniel L. Jensen of Salt Lake City, Peter S. Jensen of Little Rock, Teresa Jensen Adamson of Ellensburg, and Demeree Jensen Schaefer of Seattle. She is also survived by a brother, Maurice D. Hillyard, Jr., of Arizona, and 24 grandchildren and 46 great-grandchildren. Amy was preceded in death by her husband, Jay David Jensen, two sons, Michael D. Jensen and Eric D. Jensen, and a daughter, Leslie Jensen Keller.
While her husband was a busy Seattle-area landscape architect and land planner, Amy was fully occupied with shaping and planning the landscape of her children’s lives, ensuring that they each learned to play a musical instrument, participated in church choir, and experienced the value of good books and service to others.
Amy was an avid conversationalist. Her friends found her a ready confidant, always willing to help others to find meaning and comfort in life, despite its inevitable trials and tragedies. When her own life course and parenting hopes were devasted after the accidental deaths of her two youngest sons, she sought solace in Compassionate Friends, a national non-profit that supports individuals who have lost children or other loved ones. Eventually, she reshaped her own landscape of loss by writing several self-help booklets for grieving families and relatives – sharing the lessons she had learned from her own sorrows. Healing Grief, the first pamphlet, has sold over 4 million copies since its first publication in 1980, and is widely used by grief counselors, therapists, and hospice organizations. A second booklet, Is There Anything I Can Do?, provides guidance to friends of grieving families, and has sold nearly 2 million copies worldwide.
Amy’s friends and family will remember her for her wit and wisdom, persistence in the face of recurring loss, and for turning sorrow into service of others. Services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 8th, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 10675 N.E. 20th St., Bellevue