Mary Christine Allen Obituary (2024)

Mary Christine (Peck) Allen finished her last hike on August 28, 2024, after 51 years of life filled with family, friends, and faith. Mary passed away at Landmark Care Center under hospice after a battle with Merkel-cell carcinoma and multiple sclerosis (MS). Mary was born on April 28, 1973, at Yakima Memorial Hospital to Lewis Peck and Maurine (Nicholson) Peck. Her older brother, Adam Peck, was born two years prior, and her younger sister, Rachel (Peck) Emmans was born two years later. Mary was raised and educated in Yakima, attending West Side Christian School (Riverside Christian School). She graduated in 1991. During high school she was an all-around athlete, playing volleyball, basketball, and track. After her high school graduation, she moved to Chicago to attend Wheaton College (1991-1995). At Wheaton she studied English and Education. After graduating from Wheaton, she moved to Window Rock, New Mexico to teach English on the Navajo Reservation. After finishing in Window Rock, she moved to Hong Kong where she taught English as a second language from 1997 to 2000. While teaching in New Mexico and Hong Kong, she also coached high school girl's volleyball. In 1999 she married Thomas Allen, after meeting him in Hong Kong. They had three children: Joseph Allen, Samuel Allen, and Daniel Allen. Mary always supported her children in all their endeavors, whether that be school, sports, or travel. She attended all of her children's sporting events at Riverside Christian School and supported them through any and all challenges. She frequently spoke of her children as the greatest blessing in her life. In 2005, Mary returned to Yakima to reconnect with family and raise her children. In 2014, she began working as a substitute teacher for the Yakima School District where she worked until 2022. In 2022, she began teaching special education at Selah High School. The same year, she received her Masters in Special Education from Grand Canyon University. Her favorite parts of her job were teaching Shakespeare plays in English class, teaching a film class, and spending time with her fellow teachers at Selah. Mary always loved being a teacher; she took great pride in teaching her students and loved watching them develop, both inside and outside of the classroom. When not in the classroom, Mary enjoyed a myriad of activities. A lover of books, Mary was always reading. Her favorite book was A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, which she reread every year. Mary loved spending time in her garden, where she grew a variety of crops and flowers, including daylilies, beebalm, and roses, which were her favorite flowers. During the warmer months, she enjoyed going on hikes with friends and family; her favorite places to hike were Mt. Rainier and Sunrise. She always took joy in baking, especially for her children and their friends; her lemon bars once sold for hundreds of dollars at a fundraising auction. Her greatest passion aside from her family and teaching was travel. While teaching in Hong Kong, she traveled all across Asia to China, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Cambodia. She traveled extensively across North America and Europe, visiting France, England, Scotland, Wales, Canada, and a majority of the U.S. states. She also traveled to Australia, Fiji, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. For her, however, nothing compared to Mt. Rainier. Mary was also a woman driven and inspired by her faith in Jesus. She was a devout believer and loved her small group at Harvest Community Church. Her church group was especially supportive of her during her early stages of her diagnosis with cancer, while she was in the hospital, and during her time at Landmark. Her close friends from Riverside Christian School also gave her immense support during this time. She loved sharing her faith and caring for others in practical ways. Her faith was a cornerstone of her life and she made it a point to share the love of Jesus with everyone she met. She is survived by both of her siblings & their spouses: Adam & Angela Peck and Rachel & Paul Emmans the Third; her three children: Joseph Allen, Samuel Allen, and Daniel Allen; and her ten nieces and nephews: Joanna Peck, Laurel Peck, Justin Peck, Anna Emmans, Claire Emmans, Nora Emmans, Abigail Peck, Felicity Peck, Stuart Peck, and Evangeline Peck. Many thanks to the staff and friends at MultiCare Memorial Hospital and Landmark Care Center for your love and support of Mary Allen. Additional thanks to all the friends and extended family who have supported her over the years. A memorial service will be held at Westside Church on September 14, 2024, at 10:00am. Please join us in celebration of the many ways in which Mary Allen touched the lives of so many. If you are unable to join, we want to take this opportunity to thank any of you who have sent kind messages and express our gratitude for the love, care, and support that the Allen family has received. In lieu of flowers, please feel free to make a donation to the Memorial Foundation(Yakima) in her honor: https://memfound.org/ways-to-give/giving-options. Arrangements by Brookside Funeral Home & Crematory, Moxee, Washington.