In Loving Memory of Kamalpatti Shandil
December 28, 1928 – May 15, 2024

Please join us on Sunday, May 19th, 2024, at 10:00 AM.

Evergreen Washelli Funeral Home
11111 Aurora Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98133

Kamalpatti Singh was born to Shiu Balak Singh and Kailash Patti Singh in Suva, Fiji on December 28, 1928. Her father was a carpenter and her mother was a homemaker.

Kamalpatti was a gifted student. She was the Head Girl of her Form 6 class, with the best marks in her grade. A skilled athlete, she loved to play basketball in her early years, and held a school record for being able to jump greater than her own height of 5’3”. Kamalpatti longed to go to college and become a teacher, but her dreams were dashed by WWII and the accompanying tuberculosis outbreak in Fiji that killed half her family. Unable to continue her formal education, she instead married at age 17 to Harideo Shandil and had her first child at age 19.

A woman ahead of her time, Kamalpatti became a lifelong vegetarian at age five and remained an avid, lifelong reader. Her children would frequently find their mother reading Victorian novels like “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” by the cooking fire in their humble home. The mother of eight children, Kamalpatti worked hard to tend to their cows, chickens, and vegetable garden. As a pundit’s wife, Kamalpatti was widely known for her generosity to the less fortunate.

The greatest tragedy of her life was the accidental drowning of her youngest daughter, Uttra, at age 17. Despite seemingly insurmountable financial challenges, Kamalpatti ensured that her eldest child, Nayantra, finished school, attended college, and ultimately fulfilled her mother’s dream of becoming a teacher.

Later in life, she immigrated to the United States and proudly became a U.S. citizen in 1995. Kamalpatti was an indefatigable reader of children’s books to all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, inspiring a love of reading and a thirst for education in four generations of her family.

Kamalpatti was adored by her family for being a devout Hindu who recited her mantras with prayer beads, 106, every morning. She loved to travel, visiting the Caribbean, Europe, Australia, Mexico, and most of the 50 states.

A brilliant cook, she always made perfect rotis and the most delicious imlee chutney anyone had ever sampled. Kamalpatti’s one vice was gambling at the casino, and she was often escorted to the Tulalip casino by her family in her latter years. Her grandchildren joked that Nani’s lucky hand at the slot machines was due to “God being on her side.”

Kamalpatti was known in the local Fiji-Indian community for her gentle, joyous, and refined demeanor. She was soft-spoken and never had an unkind word to say about anyone. She only left the house in stylish outfits and with her hair in a perfect bun. As a widow, she refused to wear bright colors out of respect for her deceased husband and frequently wore pastel pinks and purples, instead.

Even in her latter years, Kamalpatti always had a book at her side, and frequently enjoyed watching Indian soap operas, when not visiting her extensive family tree of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Preceded in death by her father Shiu Balak and her mother Kailash, siblings, Jag Deep, Kamal Kumari, Kamala Sati, Jai Narayan, Arjun, and Sumintra, and her daughter Uttra and her son Mahen.

Kamalpatti leaves to mourn: her siblings, Kamala Wati and Krishnan Kumar, her children, Nayantra and husband Kamal, Rajendra and wife Chandra, Satendra and wife Nitra, Sumintra and husband Kamal, Ravindra and wife Sanita, and Gyanendra and wife Susan, her grandchildren Arleen, Jenna, Rosalyn, Daniel, Charles, Neal, Mrinaal, Prabaal, Roneel, Romeela, Rob, Pawan, and Suraj. Her great-grandchildren Jaya, Anish, Isaiah, Eva, Kinsley, Kyndall, Kallie, Simone, Jaxson, Jordan, Jalen, Jaycen, and Nadia, along with a host of nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews, friends, and loved ones who adored her unconditionally during her nearly century-long life.

In lieu of flowers, Kamalpatti’s family requests that you honor her memory by taking the time to read a book to a young child today and to always teach the children in your life the value of pursuing their education.