Anne.....short and simple ...I saw you at your worst and I know you are at peace FINALLY we love you always..please take care of all the boys and girls love you

July 27, 2021 Our angel Anne earned her wings today. She hovered over us when we were children, just like a guardian angel. Her red hair and blue eyes mirrored the depictions of angels surrounding us at church and school. It was no surprise that she was selected to be the Angel Gabriel in her high school Christmas pageant. She looked and acted just like an angel. The common thread of our sister Anne’s life is devotion to family. As a young girl in Beacon she helped raise her nine younger siblings. Anne cleaned us up when we got dirty, told us the facts of life, and helped Dad bring us safely to California and back when she was just a teenager. We would never have made it home safely without her mapping and navigation skills, without her innumerable headcounts at gas stations, rest stops and roadside picnic tables along route 66. Not even our brother Robert got lost under her eagle eye, her beautiful blue smiling eyes. We were her first family, one she never forgot. Anne was so devoted to family that, given the opportunity to go to Alaska, she declined. Why? She didn’t want to leave “the boys,” our little brothers. Before we knew it, she started her own family in Fishkill, just a few miles away from us, with Bob and then Bobby. She forged ahead and took care of them, for a time living across the road from her sister. When Bob passed, she headed south to be near Vernice while she began to heal. Thus began her Florida years. When Ma and Dad relocated there, she moved into their condo complex and got a job there to be near them and to protect them, fulfilling her angelic duties. All her life decisions were based on her connection to our family, to her family. Her Florida years eventually led to a new marriage when she joined John’s family. But she did not turn her back on her extended family. She surrounded herself with her siblings who had moved to the sunny south from Beacon. She made connections with the Florida contingent, which included many nieces and nephews that she nurtured and encouraged. She remained in Florida until Ma died. Afterward she and John made their vacation home in North Carolina their permanent residence. Even in North Carolina, she managed to visit with Joan. Joan and Anne were a duo that never truly split thanks to phones and e-mail. On one visit, they sat on Annes’s deck with the Pisgah National Forest as a backdrop, cigarettes dangling from their right hands, blue eyes sparkling, laughing and joking around. All that was missing was a pile of kids surrounding them, playing tag, ring-a-levio, and giant steps. Anne remained in North Carolina, taking care of John until he passed away. Off she ¬¬went then to Atlanta to be with Bobby, taking frequent trips to Florida to be with her sisters, nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews. Her life was all about family. But hanging out with Anne meant hanging out with her pets. Yes, she was devoted to family, but she also was devoted to Heidi and Duke, two dogs she loved dearly. Eventually, she decided to visit with her sister in Fernandina Beach, where she became ill. Near the end, she picked up the phone and called each of her remaining siblings, including Michael, Peter, Patrick, Robert, Patty, Kay and Vernice , to say good-bye and I love you. She gave us the opportunity to say thank you and I love you, too. Although she lived in many different places, her earthly home was with family, wherever they might be. Now that she has her wings, she can fly away to her spiritual home with the other angels. Yet, we trust she will still be hovering nearby, guarding and protecting us. From Patty