Roberta ARRE

January 15, 2025

Spokane - Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans.

While she was very busy planning her next vacation, her next yoga class, her next trip to the lake, Roberta "Bert" Arre was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. After enjoying a lifetime of good health, and only a year after retirement, this came as a complete and total shock to all of us. Bert was known to eat her vegetables, never smoke, and had endless amounts of energy. Even on vacation, she and her daughters would scout out walking places and cover as many miles as they could. She wasn't known to sit down for long.

Bert's early years were spent in North Dakota and then California, before eventually settling down for good in Spokane when she was in Middle School. She attended North Pines, U-High and eventually graduated from Central Valley High School. For her entire life she maintained friendships with former classmates.

Shortly after graduating, she met Roger Arre and the two quickly married and settled in Otis Orchards, where they would raise their two daughters, Jennifer and Jessica. Bert got her Pharmacy Tech license and worked at Valley Hospital, Rosauers, Group Health Northwest, and Yoke's. At each job, she made friends easily and kept them for decades to come.

Bert's constant companion was her camera. As soon as she picked up her first camera, she started taking pictures and didn't stop until days before she passed away. Every occasion big or small was captured, cataloged, and stored in many scrapbooks. Oftentimes there would be a disagreement about some past event and she would pull out her scrapbooks to "settle the matter" and sure enough, the scrapbooks would have the answer. The only year she didn't do one was 2024. Despite being retired, she was so busy doing fun things she hadn't sat down to document the year yet. Now that she is gone, her daughters, husband, and grandchildren find great joy in going through them and reminiscing.

Bert and Roger welcomed two daughters, and she loved taking pictures of them and teaching them all her ways. She was a very consistent mother and had her go-to recipes and things that the family did each year at holidays or birthdays. The girls take great comfort in all the traditions she established. She decorated the house for every holiday and always made homemade birthday desserts. She had many things that she would always say to her daughters such as "clean up as you go", "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and "don't count your chickens before they hatch." Bert also made even mundane errands with her daughters fun by always doing silly things. The little inside jokes between her and the girls lasted right up until her last days.

When her second daughter graduated from high school and started attending Gonzaga University, Bert and husband, Roger reinvented themselves as empty nesters. They took up two new hobbies and dove in passionately with both. First, they became huge GU basketball fans attending any game they could for Men's and buying season tickets for the Lady Zags. Bert amassed a large collection of Zags gear and she and Rog almost never missed watching a game. She put her scrapbook skills to good use and collected signatures and pictures of herself with the players. She cheered eagerly whether at home or in person and loved to recap the games.

Secondly, Bert and Roger fulfilled their lifelong dream of purchasing a lake property on beloved Loon Lake, where they had already been bringing their daughters each summer for years. They also bought a boat, and even shortly before she was diagnosed with cancer, she was tubing behind the boat with her grandkids. She loved working on the property and taking walks around the neighborhood. Wherever Bert went, she made sure to get a walk in.

For her last five working years, Bert left the pharmacy world and began to work for East Valley School District in the school kitchens. She loved her new career and especially her new schedule with school breaks off, allowing time for adventures. And of course, Bert used her new career as an opportunity to make many friends. She eventually retired in 2023 and continued working as a sub, not because she had to, but because she wanted to. She simply couldn't sit still and always wanted to socialize and be busy.

Bert is survived by her husband of 47 years, Roger; her daughter, Jennifer Schweda (Sam); her daughter, Jessica Santos (Scott); and grandchildren, Lauren and Olivia Wear, Miles Schweda, and Julian and Harrison Santos. At her request, no service will be held.