Welcome
I’m Katherine Tatsuda—daughter, mother, writer, and leader shaped by both legacy and loss.
I grew up in Ketchikan,Alaska, surrounded by the rhythms of community and the weight of responsibility. My family’s grocery store, Tatsuda’s IGA, was more than a business. It was a lifeline for this town for over a century. When a landslide destroyed it in 2020, it ended an era but also began something new in me: a deeper understanding of resilience, service, and the courage it takes to rebuild.
Today, I carry that same thread of legacy into everything I do.
Whether in public leadership, in parenting, or here through my writing, my purpose is the same: to live with integrity, to tell the truth, and to help others create stronger futures—for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Thank you for stopping by and sharing a piece of this journey with me. My hope is that as you read, you’ll be reminded of your own strength, your own voice, and the possibility of building something even more beautiful from the pieces life leaves behind.
My Story.
Photo: Me with my dad inside of our newly remodeled store in 2016. Celebrating our 100th anniversary.
I wasn’t thrown into fire. I was born into it.
Born into legacy. Born into responsibility.
Born into a family that had already survived war, racism, and decades of change while keeping food on Ketchikan’s tables for over a hundred years.
Most people in Ketchikan, Alaska, know me as Bill’s daughter, or as the fourth-generation leader of Tatsuda’s IGA. For more than a century, my family fed this community, not only because it was our business, but because we loved this place and the people in it. When a landslide destroyed our store in 2020, it shattered more than a building it broke open my sense of safety and identity. But it also gave me something unexpected: the beginning of my own voice.
Since then, my life has been a cycle of loss and renewal. I’ve grieved deeply—my father, my relationship, my family’s business. I’ve also rebuilt, again and again, finding resilience I didn’t know I had. Writing became the thread that carried me through sleepless nights, heartbreak, and leadership under fire.
In 2025, I stepped into the role of school board president at the very moment my world was collapsing—my dad was dying, my relationship was unraveling, and I was asked to lead publicly through division and challenge. It was the hardest season of my life, but also the one that called me home to myself.
I’m not here as a polished politician or a perfect leader. I’m here as a woman who has loved, lost, parented, worked behind a cash register, acted on stage, fished in our waters, and carried both the pride and the weight of a legacy. I’m here as someone who chose to tell the truth about what broke me, and who is writing herself into a new chapter.
This blog is part of that homecoming.
It’s where I share stories, poetry, and hard-earned wisdom about grief, healing, and creating a life better than anything I once imagined.
Because I believe in something bigger than survival:
I believe in the possibility of coming home to yourself.
And building a life more beautiful than you thought possible.
With love,
Katherine