Britta Anne Moberg

Please visit Britta’s Memorial Site for a full obituary, a photo/video slideshow and to share your thoughts: https://www.mykeeper.com/profile/BrittaAnneMoberg/.

i am sorry this world / could not keep you safe / may your journey home / be a soft and peaceful one.

-rupi kaur

Given the ongoing pandemic, Britta’s family will not be holding Calling Hours nor a live Memorial Service at this time.

On Sunday, January 31st, at 10am PST / 1pm EST, older sister Erin will offer a virtual (by Zoom) Yoga & Meditation Celebration of Life in Britta’s memory. For details and the Zoom invite, please visit: https://fb.me/e/cJBBVs0bQ.

To make a donation in Britta’s memory, family members Kay, Scott, Erin & Jonah invite you to donate to one of the following organizations:

1. Planned Parenthood Arizona: click here to donate.

2. NAMI New York State Suicide Prevention: click here to donate.

Video of Britta’s November 2020 interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show for her free cake initiative.

Two months after her 28th birthday, on Tuesday, January 12th, 2021, Britta Anne Moberg ended her life by suicide. Britta left behind parents, Kay & Scott Moberg (age 60), sister Erin (age 35), and brother Jonah (age 25). Britta’s older sister Kelsey died at age 5, when Britta was 14 months old.

Unsurprising to those who knew her well, Britta was as organized, fastidious, and planful in death as she was in life. Though her suicide shocked and devastated so many friends, colleagues, and family members, Britta’s final act of love entailed ensuring that the people in her life had access to her belongings, the artwork she made, and her final thoughts and memorial wishes. 

In so many ways, Britta entered this lifetime with as much determination and grit as she demonstrated in her final days and weeks.

Thoughts from Mom:

Britta was bright, challenging, exhausting and loved so much!

Britta was walking by 8 months and running by 9 months. Nothing stopped her from going where she wanted to go and doing what she wanted to do.

Britta never liked to sleep. She didn’t want to miss anything! Before she was 2, she would climb out of the crib and come downstairs. No matter how many times I put her back to bed, she would not stay put.

Britta was demanding and exhausting. She talked in full sentences before she was 2, and she did not hesitate to let us know when she was unhappy about something and what she wanted!

Britta was very coordinated and athletic at a young age. By age 2, she was on rollerskates because she believed there was nothing her big sister Erin could do that she couldn’t do too. She could swim with no support by age 4. 

Britta loved books and words. By age 3 ½, Britta could read and write many names and words. She would write Mom, Dad, Britta, Erin, Kelsey, Jonah, Papa and Adam (cousin). At age 4, she could fully read, and she loved to sit and read little books to Jonah and to her stuffed animals.

Creativity was always present within Britta. She would draw and tape and glue and create all sorts of wonderful things for hours. She also loved to bake with me and eventually on her own. As a young girl, I let her take over a couple of kitchen cabinets for her own baking supplies and recipes. She would make wonderful desserts--though unfortunately she never liked chocolate!

Britta was afraid of almost nothing from a very young age. The one exception was cotton balls, which she called “fuzz.” We eventually learned that if we taped cotton balls on doorknobs we could keep her out of our rooms, cupboards, and other things. We had cotton balls all over the house. This worked for a while until she started using a coat hanger to knock the “fuzz” away so that she could open doors and drawers and cupboards. It may sound cute now, but it wasn’t very cute at the time!

During what I anticipated would be the worst days of my life, after Kelsey’s death, Britta literally kept me alive by being my constant companion and motivator.  While Erin and Dad were at school and work, Britta would keep me smiling, laughing, and always alert with her very busy self. I always told Britta that “the happiest day of my life was the day you were born.” On that day, I felt life was perfect--and it was.  On her last birthday, Britta called and told me that she always remembered what I had told her about my feelings on her birth. Those words are still true. 

Thoughts from older sister Erin:

Though over a week has passed since we received the call that Britta had ended her life, it still feels surreal and impossible to think that my little sister is no longer alive.  I am not yet able to take in that new reality fully, nor do I have words adequate and poetic enough to convey my love for Britta and how deeply I miss her already.  I feel her absence and loss in everything and everywhere.

Despite our many differences--and there are many!--Britta and I shared so many qualities, passions, and endeavors, including: a love for baking, reading, sports and fitness, The Gilmore Girls and talking as quickly as possible, school and studies, community organizing, feminism and women’s rights, babysitting and petsitting, art and craft-making, hiking and camping, social justice work, board games...I could go on.

I love and deeply admire Britta, and I regret not having had the opportunity to deepen our sister connection in recent years. I remember when Britta was born, and I loved her instantly. When I think back to her childhood, these are the first memories that come to mind:

Britta, age 1: Bent over a potted houseplant and shoveling handfuls of dirt into her mouth, a full head of hair standing straight up, smiling mischievously when her parents or big sister caught her in the act.

Britta, age 2: Shutting herself inside a kitchen cupboard among the pots and pans, only allowing big sister Erin to sit with her until she felt ready to re-emerge.

Britta, age 4: Sneaking into big sister Erin’s bedroom during the school day, later insisting someone else had moved and touched Erin’s decorations and toys.

Britta, age 5: Sitting up on the kitchen counter, skillfully measuring ingredients and cracking eggs, all while sticking her fingers into the mixing bowl and licking them clean as often as she could.

Britta, age 6: Refusing to write the “e” at the end of her middle name (“Anne”), insisting to teachers and family that her full name should be spelled “Britta Ann Moberg.”

Britta, ages 7-9: Carefully sipping vanilla steamers in grown-up mugs and eating ice cream with Erin at their favorite coffee shop on weekend sister dates.

To Britta: I am so glad to have the permanent, tattooed reminder of your last trip to visit me in Oregon. I love you, sister, now and always.

Thoughts from Dad:

As Britta grew older she became involved in many activities and sports. 4H, soccer, volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, she played them all, never specializing, from youth programs through High School. She wasn’t always the best, but she was the fastest and fiercest. If she went in for a rebound or ground ball, she got it.

She continued her art and baking skills regardless of what else she had going on. She had many friends and we have dozens of pictures of her and her friends having a great time. Britta struggled emotionally over the years, but this never stopped her from excelling in whatever she tried.

To think about Britta is to think about cats. If you didn’t like cats, she probably wouldn’t talk to you. From a young age Britta had kittens and loved them, carried them around, dressed them up, and pushed them in strollers. She took hundreds of cat pictures. She managed to find cats wherever she went. On vacation in Ireland, we rented a house on the coast. While the rest of us were unpacking in walked Britta with a cat.

She learned to ski and snowboard. She loved cruising down the slopes with her little brother Jonah. Jonah liked to ski in the woods. Britta would follow, and frequently come out behind Jonah carrying one of his skis that he lost. For 11 years in a row the family spent February vacations at Mont Saint Sauveur with Britta’s Uncle John and Aunt Kelly Porter. Britta would ski all day and then go back out for night skiing with Jonah. It was there that Britta learned to keep up with me on the slopes. One morning I challenged her to keep up with me on a fast downhill slope. As I skied, I could hear her turns right behind me as she followed me like a shadow.  

In college at RIT she did well and made many friends. She founded RIT Women’s Club Volleyball as she was appalled there wasn’t already a club. She volunteered at the RIT foodbank. While there, she enjoyed visiting her cousins Jason and Misty and their kids in nearby Rochester.

In 2015 after RIT, she moved to Phoenix, AZ, for a career in graphic design. This turned out not to be her  passion, and she quit and started volunteering at Planned Parenthood, fostering kittens in her apartment, and started with her friend Vasilli a baking blog called The Sassy Pair. This eventually turned into a baking business for Britta. Her cakes were works of art. I know her friends enjoyed Britta showing up with a tupperware container under her arm because that meant dessert was forthcoming.

In Phoenix Britta was passionate about women’s services with the Phoenix Planned Parenthood chapter, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, the Elizabeth Warren presidential campaign, and of course fostering stray kittens.

Britta, we will miss you so much. We wish we could have recognized and helped you with your internal struggles. 

The following letter was written to Britta’s Mom on Mother’s Day, May 2016.

Happy Mother's Day! Congrats on your 30th year of being a mother, and while no one is perfect, I wanted to acknowledge the aspects of my current adult life that I have you to thank for. It is not within my comfort zone to share my feelings or to be overly sentimental, so hopefully you can appreciate this gesture.

To start with, I am so appreciative that you taught me to bake. Starting even with my Easy-Bake Oven, you always let me make whatever I wanted, and usually volunteered to clean up the mess that ensued. To this day baking is something that I consider one of my favorite activities and a helpful stress reliever. Though I have graduated from simple cookies and cake from a box, I still remember learning the basics from you even as I perfect the art of French macarons or creme brulee. I may never be able to match your pie crust skills, but I know Dad still misses my baking around the house.

Baking is also a large part of the many holidays and traditions you taught us to celebrate throughout my childhood. We always made dozens of different cookies at Christmas time and themed cookies for every other holiday of the year, something I still like to do even without a family of people to eat them all. l always wear green on St. Patrick's Day, color eggs on Easter, and dress up on Halloween even if none· of the other adults around me participate, because you taught us all that that was the only way to do it.

Perhaps more important than celebrating, although definitely not as fun, are the lessons I picked up from you about frugality. Growing up I helped you clip coupons, learned how to find the lowest unit price in the grocery store, and was tricked into thinking 50 cent toy machines only worked on your birthday. While I have since debunked that last myth, I still cringe if I have to buy something that’s not on sale and know that it's worth the humility to argue with a salesperson if it gets you a better deal. I could probably afford to be a bit less frugal, but you trained me well from a very young age and I think that I will always have this somewhat annoying quality.

I remember getting in trouble for reading in secret with a flashlight, long after I had been tucked in at night. But I just couldn't put down a book in the middle of a great story, and I still have that problem today. While I've always shut your request to have a book club, I do still take your recommendations and have you to thank for my love of Jodi Picoult and others. I know my love for books started before I could even read to myself, and I'm sure you wish I was still that little so you could read to me again, but it's probably the best activity that we share.

We disagreed on a lot of things while I was growing up, and we still do, but I will always be grateful for the things you forced me to try, especially because I was so stubborn! Learning to play the piano and cello, acting in Peter and the Wolf, joining 4H, and especially playing sports. Not all of these hobbies and interests stuck with me, but athletics definitely made a huge impact on my life. I remember kicking and screaming and refusing to try every sport you forced on me, first soccer, then basketball, lacrosse and finally volleyball. And even though I hated you for it then, I am so thankful that I had those experiences because being on a team and competing leads to a lot of other life lessons that I could have missed out on. 

Perhaps the most important thing I have to thank you (and Dad) for is supporting me in my decision to pursue a degree and a career in “the arts.”  I met a lot of students whose parents forced them to follow a path that would lead to making more money or a stable future and it made me appreciate that I had been able to choose for myself. I’m not sure if you were wary that design may not be a sustainable future or just confused because of all the technology involved that you weren’t caught up on, but I do know that you never told me I couldn’t do it. You helped me find schools, paid for all my ridiculous art supplies and supported my work even when I’m sure it didn’t look like much to you. For these things especially I will always be grateful to you.

We have, of course, had our fair share of problems over the decades and I'm sure that they will continue because we are such different people. But I know that these are some of the core aspects of myself and that they come from you. I would quite literally not be where I am or who I am today without your support and guidance over the years, and that is truly what motherhood is all about. So I hope you can celebrate today, because thanks to you, I turned out pretty great!

Love, Britta