Barbara King would hate this obituary. She wanted no notice, no tribute, nothing to mark her passing. She would laugh and ask, “What are you gonna write? I loved my family and walked my dogs? Who cares?” The answer, of course, is we do.

Born on Cape Cod in 1945, Barbara grew up on Nantucket, where she met her husband, Nate, in high school. They raised their two girls Colleen and Angela (Sean) in Yarmouth, and delighted in their four grandchildren, Caitlin, Carson, Michael, and Maddison.

Barbara would have said she had a rather small life, camping on Sandy Neck, enjoying her daily dog walks around a cranberry bog, and running the office for Nate’s Electric from home. But if you looked closely, you would see her philosophy of work hard, play harder. She was the most competitive person at every game, going so far as to kick invisible dirt on her opponents and throwing away new decks of cards if she wasn’t having luck with them.

She knew what to do in any situation. She once successfully gave mouth-to-mouth to her cocker spaniel when it was choking. She trained the koi in her pond to swim up and take Cheerios from her hand. Barbara loved projects and always had the best solutions. The hardware store was her favorite place to shop. Barbara was a can-do, go-to person with boundless energy. Her family called her the Energizer Bunny. She was epic in scope and always had our backs.

She shied away from strangers but put family first, which came to include two great-grandsons, Jonah and Jesse. After family, Barbara preferred the company of animals, teaching horseback riding as a teen on Nantucket, and caretaking an array of pets, including her beloved border terrier, Annie.

She was always ready to be a partner in crime, Thelma to our Louise, and if there was mischief underway, she’d be the one at your side with a playful grin.

The family wishes to thank Continuum Hospice and the entire care team at Bridges in Mashpee, especially Patricia Laferriere, who kept Barbara laughing for the last five years. She loved to laugh, irreverently, with child-like abandon.

Above all, she adored her husband Nate, who we know is overjoyed to have her back by his side. They were always a team, even in death, dying exactly five years apart on the same day and same hour on July 18. The family plans a private memorial, where both Nate and Barbara will be scattered at sea. They are together, as they were always meant to be. And we are celebrating her return to wholeness after a decade of descent into the fog of Alzheimer’s. So glad you are yourself again, Barbara. Sorry for this obit. Feel free to kick invisible dirt.