Members of the Puget neighborhood and beyond came together to celebrate the life of beloved community member Robert Sooter on June 17. Neighbors enjoyed snacks and music as they traded memories of Sooter in the park he spent years of his life creating.
Sooter passed away at 66 years old in November 2022. He created the park – unofficially named “Robbie’s Park” – out of a small green space between two homes in the Puget neighborhood, where he lived for many years. There, he cleared out blackberry brambles, planted flowers and tended to the dirt path leading through it. He even added a small picnic bench for visitors to enjoy.
Though it is a small space, the park is easily identified by a wood sign that says “Robbie’s Park” in big painted letters. Community members are looking into how to officially designate the space as a park.
“Now people walk that path every day,” said Georgia Wilson, a former neighbor of Sooter. “We get a lot of traffic through here, so I’m hoping that people don’t forget him.”
The memorial started with a performance by recently graduated eighth-grader Annelisa Crosetti, who played “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” on the trumpet. Her act was followed by a sing-along performance by Paul Klein and Mike Hall that included “This Land is Your Land” and “Garden Song” by David Mallett.
Verses were created to honor Sooter, including, “Though his time was near at hand, he worked long from dawn to dark, he had a dream of a people’s park.”
In addition to the park, Sooter used his talent for gardening to tend to the yards of his neighbors.
The gardens Sooter planted around the neighborhood were spontaneously designed, but crafted with great care and time. A testament to this is the yard of Sharon Trent and Don Reinke, which is scattered with daisies and irises and features a vegetable garden and koi pond.
“It was clear that if Robbie was going to be healthy, he needed dirt to work in,” Christina Crosetti said at the memorial. Sooter played a grandfatherly role in the lives of Christina Crosetti’s family.
Sooter came to live in Trent and Reinke’s house when he could no longer afford his rent. He lived in their basement which they converted into an apartment.
“Even before [he] moved in he said, ‘Can I come play on your dirt?’” Trent said. “He just loved to garden.”
Weather permitting, Sooter would work in his neighbors’ yards for hours every day, Wilson said. He did it free of charge, though people would often gift him with clothing, food and other items in return. Once, Wilson gave him boots so that his feet wouldn’t get cold outside.
“He never asked for anything,” Wilson said. “And that’s the only way I could repay him – to make him as comfortable as I could.”
Now his neighbors get one more gift from Sooter: flower seeds and artwork he left behind, which were available to all attendees during the memorial.
Sooter had many hobbies and talents in his life in addition to gardening. He liked to draw Celtic knots, arrange bouquets, collect rocks and tell wild stories about his life.
During the memorial, Sooter’s friends laughed as they reflected on the stories he had told them. Neighbor Jay Watson told the story of Sooter’s facedown with a bear and Annelisa Crosetti described how Sooter had been bitten by a piranha as a child.
As the oldest child of a large family, Sooter’s family history is complicated, Trent said. However, the family he found in his neighborhood community was simple. He took care of his community, and in return, they took care of him.
“He just has a lot of people in this area who loved him,” Trent said.
Now, the community is trying to maintain all the work he did in the neighborhood’s green spaces. Trent is arranging a sign-up sheet so community members can take turns weeding and cleaning “Robbie’s Park.”
“Robbie left beauty everywhere,” Wilson said. “Everywhere he went, he planted flowers.”
