Our Church Board Member Ann Mari Faut died on July 17 2023 after being hospitalized with a brain tumor since mid-May. She is remembered as a trooper and a solid rock and shining star in our Swedish community for many decades.
She was born in Eskilstuna, Torshälla October 2 1938, daughter of Malte Brandstad and his wife Gully Åstrὅm. Ann was survived by her partner Eugene Vincent Klotz, a younger sister Kerstin Brandstad, two nieces, Lena and Anette Ruthfjäll, a nephew, Johan Ruthfjäll, one older half-brother Bo Brandstad , and a stepson Kurt Faut.
An adventurer
Ann was remembered by her Swedish family as an adventurer. After high school she worked as an au pair in Switzerland After finishing the Red Cross nursing school in Stockholm, she worked as a nurse in Kiruna north of the arctic circle but after experiencing the midnight sun and 24 hrs. of darkness in the winter months she was ready for a new adventure - California. After arriving in the Bay Area in 1965, she worked at hospitals in San Jose. In 1974 she bought a house in Concord and on 25 August 1976 she married Gilbert Wolfgang Faut, a high school teacher whom she brought with her on a trip to Sweden to meet her family. They also took a trip to St Petersburg to see the art museums but a year later he suddenly died, and she was already a widow when she turned 39.
She became a registered nurse in the State of California in 1979 and then worked for more than 25 years at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek where she became a close colleague with another Swedish nurse, Elisabeth Coats, who remained her closest friend throughout the years.
A Solid Leader who cared about Everybody
Ann was well organized and had a natural talent to put people to work both as one of the first chairs of SWEA and then in her many years of service as board member in Church of Sweden, where she never missed a service in San Francisco or Los Altos. When our Priest Joakim Schroder; arrived a few days before Christmas 2021, after being blocked for over a year by the travel ban during the pandemic, I reached out to board members to see who could host him for Christmas Eve. Ann and Gene immediately responded with a gracious invitation for dinner at their home in Concord.
Unique Care Team
After Ann was hospitalized Gene formed a unique troika care team, supported by Gun Bolin, who knew her from SWEA and Elisabeth Coats, who had worked together with her at John Muir Hospital. Kikki Nordin and I myself visited her at the Walnut Creek Post- op care facility during her last week. She left this world quietly in the morning on July 17.
On Mondy August 7 the care team troika spread the ashes on the slopes of Mount Diablo overlooking some open vistas that Ann would have chosen, and they stayed together in silence, meditation, reading and prayer. May she rest in Peace!