MOUNT VERNON — Out of tragedy has come a clear sense of who slain Skagit County Sheriff’s Deputy Anne Jackson was.

This is the impression of Jeanine Rood, Jackson’s cousin, who arrived here from Oregon in the wake of her family member’s death.

“It’s overwhelming to come up here and see the love and support and the outreach for Anne. It just confirms the person who she was,” Rood said. “It’s very sad.”

But Rood, 44, laughed as she recalled moments shared with Jackson, including Easter-egg hunts at their grandmother’s home in California.

“We’re kids, we’re all laughing. There was never anything wrong. We were just always laughing and playing together,” Rood said.

“If we had bad times in our lives we were able to laugh, I guess, at how ridiculous things can become,” she added.

Rood described Jackson, 40, as a caring person who naturally gravitated to her positions with the Sheriff’s Office as an animal-control officer and then as a patrol deputy.

Rood said the danger in Jackson’s job was clear to her family.

“We knew the danger was there, but how can you deny somebody’s passion for helping the community and helping those people around her?” said Rood, who was designated by Jackson’s family to speak on their behalf.

Rood wouldn’t talk about Jackson’s brother, who was reportedly mentally ill and so had something in common with Isaac L. Zamora, the man from Alger who is suspected in Jackson’s homicide.

The deputy had shown compassion for Zamora, but that had nothing to do with her brother, Rood said.

“No matter what happened to her brother, I think that Anne just had a compassion for those around her who were in need,” she said.

Rood reaffirmed earlier statements from the family that they were not angry at Zamora.

“I don’t hold any animosity towards Mr. Zamora. He was mentally ill, and it was a very tragic thing that happened. I wish that there was support for the mentally ill after the age of 18,” Rood said.

The outpouring of support for Jackson will reach what Rood called a cathartic pitch on Tuesday, when officials anticipate as many as 5,000 people at a memorial service in Jackson’s honor.

Gov. Chris Gregoire is scheduled to attend, along with law enforcement officials from across the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, said Erica Work, public information officer for the Deputy Anne Jackson Memorial Planning Team.

The service will take place at the Burlington-Edison High School football field at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Students will be released from school at 11 a.m.

The location was believed to be the largest venue in the county to handle the large crowd expected. Jackson’s family and the Sheriff’s Office wanted to hold the memorial in Skagit County, Work said.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to one of the following charities: the United States Pony Clubs, Concerns of Police Survivors, the 10-99 Foundation, the Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation or the Skagit Valley Humane Society.

• Ralph Schwartz can be reached at 360-416-2138 or .