Amy Vanderbeck, a longtime barista at Capitol Hill institution Espresso Vivace and co-owner of the late Watertown Coffee, was found dead in Volunteer Park’s south lily pond on Monday. She was 49.

Vanderbeck, a former Uptown Espresso and Espresso Vivace barista, taught the coffee house’s staff invaluable lessons, including how to make perfect milk foam, commented Vivace co-founder and co-owner David Schomer in an e-mail.

“She brought her beautiful, unique perspective and philosophy to us all as a friend,” he wrote. “I have grown used to seeing her in the red chair at Brix and will miss her each time I look at her corner.”

Vanderbeck and her three sisters, Jenny, Katy, and Lisa Weir all worked for Vivace before they branched out to start their own coffee house, Watertown, which eventually closed in 2010.

“There’s not a lot of coffee places where a whole family worked for them,” said Kasey Frix, 43, a barista at Vivace’s “Brix” location on Broadway Avenue and Mercer Street, who met Amy Vanderbeck when he began working at the coffee house’s old Cal Anderson Park stand in 1999.

He described his friend as “witty to the point of being intimidating” and as beloved by customers.

“She was a phenomenally talented barista and had a unique way of relating to people,” he said. “There was an intimacy there that never felt creepy or invasive. She just knew ways to find commonality with people. She was like a super-barista in that way.”

Although Vanderbeck never worked at the Vivace “Brix” location on northern Broadway, she often visited during the day, he said.

Schomer remembers her funny side. He wrote: “She and I had many rants about the things we hate: aggressive drivers, leaf blowers, breathing diesel fumes and the whole urban miasma of horrors.”

Alongside her quick wit and humor, Vanderbeck also reportedly struggled with mental health issues, including depression and bipolar disorder and discussed them openly, said Frix.

She also discussed her bad days on her “Struggle to Connect” podcast, which she started in 2016, Capitol Hill Seattle reports.

In the most recent episode from November she catches up with an old friend at Vivace, where she started working in the late 80s. “I define a friend as someone I’ve been in the foxhole with at some point in my life,” she says. “Someone who has been right next to me when something shitty or completely awesome — but mostly shitty — has happened.” Through the episode, the two discuss love, work, sex, and Capitol Hill.

A representative for the Vanderbeck family issued the following statement regarding the circumstances of Amy’s death:

Speculating on the cause and manner surrounding Amy’s death is dangerous. The pathologist that performed Amy’s autopsy, Dr. Harruff, does not feel this was an act of volition given all the current information. Physical evidence found at the scene and from the body suggest an accidental death, although toxicology reports will offer more insight in 6-8 weeks.

Amy was committed to her followers, as demonstrated by her podcast, Struggle To Connect, and helping her followers, friends, and family connect, laugh, and focus on all the people who are only a force of good for the world. Amy was a force of good for the world. Everyone that knew her, listened to her, or read her will tell you, “Amy saved my life.”

A memorial march down Broadway will be held today, January 13. According to the Capitol Hill Times, a celebration of her life will be held at Century Ballroom from 2-6. Afterward, mourners will walk from Century Ballroom to Volunteer Park. There is also a GoFundMe fundraiser to help the Vanderbeck family pay for funeral costs. Donate here.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out and call the 24-hour King County Crisis Line at 206-461-3222 for help.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that Amy Vanderbeck worked at Espresso Vivace with her two sisters, Jenny and Katy. Her eldest sister, Lisa Weir, also worked at the coffeehouse as a barista and manager of its roastery. We regret the error.

Ana Sofia Knauf reports on Neighborhoods for The Stranger. When she’s not commuting to work by bus, she’s worrying about Seattle’s rising rents, giving herself headaches thinking about race, or trying...