Joan M. Sager's Obituary
Joan Miller Sager passed peacefully in her sleep on December 14, 2023, at the age of 89. She lived a life centered on gratitude, generosity, and kindness. She adored—and was adored by—her large family, and she looked forward to the embrace of those who went before her.
Joan was born in Yakima, Washington, and grew up all over the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. Her father, Carl Miller, worked in heavy construction, and the family moved every few years from one major road or dam project to another. This did not afford Joan an opportunity to form close community ties in her youth, but nurtured a closeness with her mom, Marie, that lasted a life time.
After high school Joan graduated from Oregon Institute of Technology and worked as a medical laboratory technologist at hospitals and clinics in Tacoma, Los Angeles, and Olympia. At some point along the way she caught the eye of a fellow technologist. She and David Sager were married at the Scott Lake Community Club in 1982.
Stating that she could no longer “abide the idea” of drawing blood from vulnerable people, Joan enrolled in secretarial training at Clover Park Technical College and began a fulfilling career at Washington State Parks. Her work friends came to know what her family had already figured out, that Joan had a huge heart and the kindest of souls. Upon her retirement they wrote, “She looked for and found the good in us all.”
Work, however, did not define Joan. There were two things in life that she treasured: family and gardening, often combining the two. She and her mom hosted boisterous weekly card games with Marie’s five sisters. When Marie could no longer handle activities of daily living, Joan became her full-time caregiver, and did so with incomparable love and compassion for more than 10 years.
She was the epitome of positivity and remained socially connected after losing Marie in January 2016 and David a few months later in September. She and her cousin Terrence made regular outings to Tacoma’s Grand Cinema. She threw birthday parties for herself, well attended by her extended family of adoring cousins, and friends who had become like family. And she was the impetus behind monthly cousins brown bag lunches, first in her Tacoma home, then at her retirement apartment in Olympia.
She moved to Olympia in 2022 so that her Thurston County cousins could drop by more often and help with various appointments. She handled the move graciously, but never gave up on the idea of going back to her little Tacoma house that she shared with her mom for so many years. This transition was softened by the love and attention she received from her cousin Gena Clintworth, who seamlessly assumed Joan’s affairs and formed a friendship that went beyond family ties.
Joan is survived by her nephew Lance Miller and his family, David’s four children, and her 14 first cousins on her mother’s side who will miss her dearly. She was preceded in death by her husband David, her sister Doris, her parents, Marie and Carl Miller, her brother and sister-in-law Larry and Eleanor Miller, her nephew Kevin, Marie’s six sisters, two brothers and their spouses, and three maternal first cousins.
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