Barbara Mason-Urschel, 82, was discovered lying outside her home on Monday morning, March 22, her leg pinned beneath her vehicle, which was in gear and running. Emergency responders pronounced her dead upon their arrival.

“It was a massive heart attack,” said her son, Reid Mason. “There was very little pain involved. She went so fast it was a blessing.”

Sheriff Rob Nou said an autopsy indicated her death was due to natural causes.

“It’s just a really sad set of circumstances,” said Nou. “There is no suspicion of foul play.”

One theory is that Urschel jumped out of her car in the midst of a heart attack, and then fell to the ground, where she died immediately.

He said Urschel had no near neighbors, and the driveway is such that no one driving by would have noticed anything amiss.

The Urschels were a literary family: Barbara, her also-deceased husband Bill and her daughter Holaday Mason are all poets. Both mother and daughter have shared their work in readings at Darvills Bookstore in the past. Bill and Barbara, both retired schoolteachers and school psychologists, moved to Orcas from Southern California in 1982. They had four children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In 1998 Barbara shared with the Orcas community her book “From Grief to Grace: Journaling Through Bill’s Illness,” inspired by a journal she kept while Bill was dying of pancreatic cancer.

“She was greatly loved in this community, and she loved everyone here on the island,” said Reid. “She had an incredibly open heart to people, especially people in need. We will be holding a celebration of her life sometime late spring or early summer, and we will let everyone know then.”

Added Barbara’s daughter Holaday Mason, “Family will be coming and going, and the neighborhood will be keeping an eye on the place.”