I grew up working at the old Bellevue store before it was in a mall in the 70’s. Started as a gift wrapper, moved into the Brass Plum. Moved into the new Bellevue store and worked next to Blake when he was working in Brass Plum Shoes. I LOVED that the “Nordstrom kids” had also started at the bottom like the rest of us. Blake was so sweet and humble and I always thought that he was just like his dad Mr. Bruce who we all love. As the years went by and he moved up in OUR company and I moved to store #5 to work in Cosmetics, and Men’s Fragrance. I saw him throughout my 24 year career walking the floors, with his huge smile, chatting with employees and customers along the way, picking up anything that might be on the floor that shouldn’t be, ALWAYS saying hi and calling me and everyone else by name! Then I moved to store #1 and saw him pretty frequently chatting with all of us as he made his way through the store. He never changed and really did treat us like we were part of the Nordstrom family! I always felt and still do feel very proud to say that I worked for Nordstrom (the best of the best) for 24 years! That was a magical time! Blake was an extremely caring and compassionate human being! Mr. Bruce, thank you for sharing your son Blake and the rest of your family with all of us! My heart goes out to you, Blake’s wife and kids, Pete and Eric and the rest of the Nordstrom family! Huge loss

Kelley Hanan-Parlette