Deborah Lynn Kalmbach

Debbie Lynn Kalmbach died peacefully at her home in Gig Harbor after an eleven year bout with cancer.
On January 18th, 1954 Debbie was born in Woodlake, CA. Growing up in the country, her love for animals was bred from an early age. Debbie's favorite activity was riding horses and she shared this experience with her sister Robyn other family and friends throughout her life. She accepted Jesus into her heart from early on and her faith was always a vital part of her life. She graduated from Chico State with a degree in Speech pathology in 1976. Her adventurous spirit took her from Alaska to Hawaii. In Alaska, Debbie met her first husband and moved to Washington in 1988. Together they had two sons, first Clint and then Wes three years later. Though they would separate after eleven years of marriage, Debbie and Wayne remained friends until the end. In the late 1980s, Debbie went back to school and received her teaching degree in elementary education.
Later, Debbie met Ed Kalmbach, who she called the love of her life, and they married in 1996.Soon after, the family moved to Silverdale, WA and made the Kitsap Peninsula their home. It was here that Debbie settled in a real sense of community. She was deeply involved in Silverdale United Methodist Church, teaching children's Sunday school and participating in numerous committees. Eventually Debbie went back to school and received her Master's degree in elementary teaching in 2001. Her charismatic approach to education, which always included songs, plays, rhymes, games and active learning style positively, shaped hundreds of young minds.
In 2001, Debbie was diagnosed with breast cancer. Over the course of the next eleven years, she would be diagnosed with cancer six times, beating all odds, even when doctors told her it was terminal. It was in this time that Debbie wrung the most out of life, even while battling numerous degenerative forms of cancer. During this period, she continued to teach, traveled to Mexico, Europe, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii and many other states. With the boys at college, Ed and Debbie moved to Gig Harbor. There she revived her childhood dream and they built a beautiful house on several acres and she once again had horses.
Cancer would come and go, and Debbie continued to push life both in recreation and in her career. Through a rigorous process, Debbie became one of the first in the entire country to become a National Board Certified teacher, a culminating effort that brought her immense pride and respect. Debbie always had the “can-do” attitude. Never once did she let cancer control her life or stop her from doing what she wanted to do. She liked to say that she “taught others how to live with cancer.” If it wasn't already true before, Debbie exerted more out of life in her last 11 years than most people do in 80.
In the final three weeks of her life, a wave of support washed over her from a community that cherished her. Friends and family came from across the country, the phone rang off the hook, and a tight schedule had to be kept due to the sheer volume of aspiring visitors. Mere days before her passing, Debbie went on a final horseback ride with her 82 year old father. She and her mom had joint manicures, where she had flowers painted on her toenails. When the manicurist asked if she was going on a vacation, Debbie excitedly said “no, I'm going to heaven!”
Debbie is survived by her husband Ed, her two sons Clint and Wes Helander, her stepchildren Thom Kalmbach and Kristin Halsted (Matt), her sister Robyn Beaird (Randy), her parents Gerald and Alice Thompson, and an extensive multi-generational family and countless friends.