Dorothy Gladys Omega Weissman (née Job) passed away in Lake Oswego, Oregon, on February 17, at the age of 83. She was living in Caritas House Memory Care at Mary’s Woods Senior Living Community. Dorothy (Dot) is survived by her children: Adam Weissman (with Tabitha Jordan) and Tamily Weissman-Unni (with Vivek Unni). She leaves behind five grandchildren, Naomi, Alina, Nova, Sonia, and Alexandra. Preceded in death by her two younger brothers, Cliff and Leslie, Dot died following a six-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Dot was born in Yorkshire, England on October 1, 1941, to Ellis and Gladys Job. As Sheffield was heavily bombed during this wartime period, temporary hospital tents were set up as outdoor maternity wards in Northallerton, which is 80 miles north of Sheffield. So Dot’s mother gave birth to her in a field while bombs were falling during World War II. Perhaps this resilient start to Dot’s life helped to set the stage for her to become a fierce survivor. She grew up very poor in what she always called the “slums” of Sheffield: Attercliffe. She and her two brothers shared one bed in a room that was also shared with her parents. The house did not have a bathroom but a shared outhouse with other neighbors behind the building. They would have to take baths in a metal tub in front of the fireplace. Dot would recall the kitchen floor being covered with a dark blanket of mice every morning and how the rodents would scatter when you entered the room.

The oldest of three siblings, Dot was responsible for helping to take care of her younger brothers and father from a very young age. She would whisk her brothers off to church every Sunday, to get out of the house. Despite much hardship during her childhood, Dot recalled feeling loved by her father, who was a very kind man. He worked as a crane driver in the Sheffield steel mill. Her mother Gladys worked as a maid, but found her true passion in darts. Gladys was the reigning darts champion of Sheffield for many years and spent most evenings away at the pub. Dot recalled that their home had a dartboard for practicing on the back of the kitchen door, so you had to be careful when you went in or out!

Dot told many vivid stories of her childhood. One afternoon, she and her brothers were larking around, jumping on the bed upstairs in the bedroom. One of the legs of the bed suddenly broke through the floor, crashing through the ceiling of the downstairs room, where her imposing mother was. Her mother grabbed her by the arm and without words whipped her down the street to the bus stop. While Dot assumed she was going somewhere to be punished, she quickly learned that her mother was taking her to the council office, where Gladys used the episode to argue that their home should be condemned and they should be moved into Council housing. From that moment forward, the family lived in a Council house in a better part of town; Dot even had her own bedroom.

Dot always loved school. She attended a low-income school in Attercliffe until one of her teachers encouraged her to take the entrance exam at the prestigious Grange Grammar school for girls, where she won a scholarship to attend. This was a bright spot in Dot’s childhood. She would take the bus across town to school every day and often visit her beloved grandmother, Jane Annie Austin (Grandma Peat), after school. Dot described Grandma Peat as being the most loving caretaker in her life.

Dot moved on to be the first in her family to ever attend college, studying botany and zoology at the University of Liverpool from 1960-1963. She remembered seeing the Beatles play in Liverpool, before they became famous. During the summers, she worked as a nurse’s aide at Fir Vale hospital in Sheffield. Unfortunately Dot’s father (Ellis) became extremely ill from lung cancer during this period, and eventually passed away just moments before Dot was able to arrive home on the train from Liverpool. Dot often recalled this moment in her life with deep regret and sadness.

After Dot attained her teaching credentials, she decided to “see the world” and signed up for the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) program (the British equivalent of the US Peace Corps). In 1964 she was sent to teach biology at the Accra Girls Secondary School in Accra, Ghana, West Africa.

In Accra, she met Michael (Mike) Weissman, who was also teaching there, with the American program, Teachers for West Africa. After dating for a year, they decided to get married and to stay in Ghana for a second year. It was a happy time for both of them; the weather was warm and sunny, the beach was close by, the music and dancing was enjoyable, and the Ghanaian people were very friendly.

One disturbing incident was when the Ghanaian Army revolted against the government of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president. He was not popular, so it was a peaceful takeover, except for one night when his Russian palace guard fought with the Army – and bullets landed on the school compound near the house where Dot and Mike lived! They hid in the closet!

Following the two years in Africa, Dot and Mike moved to Baltimore, where Mike enrolled as a graduate student. Dot worked for a time as a biology lab assistant, until she gave birth to son Adam in 1968. Soon after, they moved to Chicago, where Mike continued his doctoral studies.

In Chicago, they lived in the city, in Hyde Park, and also in the suburban town of Homewood. Daughter Tamily was born during this time, in 1971. Neither Dot nor Mike appreciated the weather! Very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. Dot recalled shoveling snow up until the very day she gave birth, terrified they’d be snowed in when she went into labor.

After four years, Mike completed his PhD, and they decided to try living in England. Mike was able to get a postdoctoral research position at Imperial College in London, and they settled in Bromley, a south-eastern suburb. Here Dot worked as a teacher, Adam started school, and Tam was a mischievous 2-year old. After two years, Mike took a job at a research lab in Teddington, a suburb on the southwest side of London, where they moved in 1974. They all enjoyed trips to Sheffield to visit Dot’s family.

After six years in England, it was time to return to the States; however, they were wary of midwestern climate extremes (!), so Mike got a job near Federal Way, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, which has moderate weather like England’s...

Dot lived in Federal Way for 30+ years, where Adam and Tam completed their schooling through high school. Dot worked at a nursing home in Normandy Park, then for many years at the British Consulate in downtown Seattle – where she met Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip during a visit! She then worked for the People Of Color Against AIDS Network (POCAAN; often coming home with all sorts of birth control, which she would hand out to anyone who would take them!), and eventually returned to teaching. Dot finished her working career as a science teacher at Decatur High School and Saghalie Middle School in Federal Way.

Dot was a brilliant, witty, creative, vibrant, feisty Englishwoman who made the people around her laugh every day, and knew more than anything how to fight to survive. She had the highest pain tolerance most doctors had ever seen. Stating that she never wanted to be boring or ‘non-descript’, she was instead passionate, exuberant, dramatic, and, as she would say, “colorful”. She imparted these qualities to her children in different ways. Although her quick wit could sometimes be biting, she was always generous and compassionate. Dot once described her life philosophy as “being kind to people; understanding, accepting people for who they are and not judging”.

Dot was creative throughout her life, teaching others to sew, knit, crochet, and paint. Her energy and joy shone particularly bright when she was on the stage. Dot was active in two decades of musical theater productions with Puget Sound Musical Theater as well as the Seattle-based Mountaineers group. She was also a long-time, stalwart singer in the church choir at Wayside United Church of Christ in Federal Way, where she was a generous and devoted member for over 40 years. Dot also loved cats and always seemed to have two in her home. She once said that her appreciation for cats began when she relied upon them to chase mice in her childhood home.

After her grandchildren were born, Dot retired and moved to Oregon in 2013, where she bought a house that shared a backyard with her daughter Tam and family. Dot left behind a rich community and many dear friends in Federal Way.  In this next chapter of her life, she lovingly helped take care of her little grandchildren after school and enjoyed a story-book few years until her memory started to fail. Officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in September 2019, she continued to live at home until 2021, when she moved to the Mary’s Woods Community and eventually to memory care at Caritas. She was lovingly cared for by the staff at Caritas along with her long-time caretaker Kathleen Tumpane. A fierce survivor until the very end, Dot eventually passed away peacefully on Monday February 17 with her two children at her side.

A celebration of Dot’s life will be held at 1:00 PM on Saturday June 21, at Wayside United Church of Christ in Federal Way, Washington. A Zoom broadcast can be watched at the details below.  As Dot was a fierce supporter of science and the natural world, donations to the OHSU Brain Bank, which provides free post-mortem services to Alzheimer’s patients, would be most appropriate in her honor. 

Saturday June 21, at 1 pm PST:

Zoom ID: 860 4095 7374

Password: WaysideUCC

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/860…

Send to someone

Share this obituary with others

https://everloved.com/life-of/dorothy-weissman/obituary/

Copy