Obituary examples for a mother

Beverly Ann Ostrowski, 84, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, died August 3, 2026. For 38 years she kept the books at Ostrowski Hardware, the store she and her husband, Stan, opened in 1971, and she could still tell you what a box of wood screws cost in 1980. She is survived by her daughters, Carol and Lisa, and her son, Mark. Visitation is Friday, August 7, from 4 to 7 pm at Lindgren Funeral Home.

Tanya Renee Whitfield, 51, of Memphis, Tennessee, died July 22, 2026, after three years with breast cancer. She raised her sons on her own while working nights as a 911 dispatcher, and she still made every parent-teacher conference, usually straight off a shift. She is survived by her sons, Marcus and Devin; her mother, Gloria Whitfield; and her sister, Keisha. A memorial will be held Saturday, August 1, at 11 am at the Orange Mound Community Center.

Our mother, Ingrid Solberg Halvorsen, died at home in Fargo, North Dakota, on June 9, 2026. She was 90. Mom taught piano in our front room for fifty years, and half the town learned their scales on her bench. We will gather at her church, Bethany Lutheran, on Saturday, June 20, at 2 pm. In place of flowers, she asked that you play something, badly or well, for someone you love.

Carolyn Diane Mercer, 76, of Sacramento, California, died on September 28, 2026, with her husband and children beside her.

Carolyn was born in 1950 in Bakersfield, the eldest of four children of Frank and Lorraine Mercer. She earned a civil engineering degree from Fresno State in 1972, one of three women in her class, and spent 34 years designing highway interchanges for the State of California. If you have driven Highway 50 into downtown Sacramento, you have driven over her work. She mentored dozens of young engineers and kept a folder of every thank-you note they sent her.

She married Douglas Fenn in 1977. Carolyn kept her name, and Doug kept the household running in the years her projects ran late. Together they raised three children and took them to every national park they could reach in a station wagon.

Carolyn is survived by Doug, her husband of 49 years; her children, Laura (Ben) Castellanos, Michael Fenn and Sarah Fenn; her brothers, Gary and Steve Mercer; and five grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her sister, Janet.

A memorial service will be held at 2 pm on Saturday, October 17, at Arden Park Community Church. Gifts in her memory may go to the engineering scholarship fund at Fresno State.

Rose Marie DiNardo, 92, of Providence, Rhode Island, died at home on May 16, 2026.

Rose was born on Federal Hill in 1934, the youngest of seven children of Italian immigrants Vincenzo and Maria Cavallaro. She married Anthony DiNardo in 1955, and they raised five children in a three-decker on Atwells Avenue, with Rose’s sister on the second floor and Anthony’s parents on the third.

Rose ran that house as a full-time job. She kept a ledger of every bill for sixty years and sewed the children’s Easter clothes herself, and she could get five kids to four different schools on one bus pass. When Anthony had a stroke in 1984, she learned to drive at 50 so she could take him to therapy three times a week. That same year she signed up as a poll worker, and she did not miss an election for the next four decades.

Rose was preceded in death by Anthony in 1999 and by her son, Joseph, in 2015. She is survived by her children, Anna Marie (Richard) Sousa, Vincent DiNardo, Theresa Pallotta and Paul (Linda) DiNardo; 13 grandchildren; and 9 great-grandchildren.

Visiting hours are Wednesday, May 20, from 4 to 7 pm. Her funeral will be held Thursday, May 21, at 10 am, followed by burial beside Anthony.

Miriam Sarah Feldstein, née Gold, 84, of Skokie, Illinois, died on the morning of March 4, 2026, surrounded by her family.

Born in the Bronx in 1942 to Sol and Esther Gold, she married Arthur Feldstein in 1964 and moved to Skokie, where she taught Hebrew school at Congregation Beth Torah for 31 years. Generations of children learned the aleph-bet at her table, and many came back as parents to ask her to tutor their own children for their bar and bat mitzvahs. She lit Shabbat candles every Friday night for 62 years and kept an extra seat at her Passover seder for anyone who had nowhere else to go.

She is survived by her children, Rabbi Daniel (Rachel) Feldstein and Judith Feldstein-Marsh; her grandchildren, Noa, Eli, Ben and Hannah; and her brother, Leonard Gold. She was predeceased by her beloved Arthur in 2019.

Funeral services will be held Friday, March 6, at 11 am at Beth Torah, followed by burial beside Arthur. Shiva will be observed at the home of Judith and Mark Marsh through Tuesday evening. Contributions may be made to the congregation’s religious school. May her memory be a blessing.

Corazon “Cora” Villanueva Santos, 74, of Daly City, California, entered eternal life on April 11, 2026.

Cora was born in 1952 in Iloilo City, Philippines, the second of six children. She arrived in San Francisco in 1979 with two suitcases and a medical technology license, and she worked in a hospital laboratory for 35 years. Every month of those years she sent money home, and she put four younger siblings through school before sponsoring each of them to join her here. She led the Tuesday rosary group at her parish and never let a newcomer from home spend a holiday alone.

She is survived by her husband of 45 years, Ernesto; her children, Mark (Jen) Santos and Bernadette (Luis) Ocampo; her grandchildren, Gabriel, Mia and Lucas; and her siblings in California, Nevada and Iloilo.

Novena prayers will be said at the family home each evening from April 15 through April 23. A viewing and rosary will be held Thursday, April 16, at 6 pm, and a Mass of Christian Burial on Friday, April 17, at 10 am, followed by interment at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma.

Shirley Ann Pruitt Coleman, 87, of Birmingham, Alabama, went home to be with the Lord on Sunday, February 15, 2026.

Shirley was widowed at 41, when her first husband, James Pruitt, died suddenly in 1980. She raised their four children on her salary as a records clerk at the county courthouse, where she worked for 27 years. In 1997, at 58, she married Earl Coleman, a widower from her Sunday school class, and gained three more children and a second set of grandchildren who never once heard the word “step” from her.

She kept a birthday calendar for 22 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren and mailed each of them a card with a two-dollar bill inside every year. She was a church mother at Greater Shiloh Baptist Church for longer than many of its members have been alive.

Shirley was preceded in death by James, by Earl in 2021, and by her son, Reginald. She leaves her children, Darnell Pruitt, Yvonne (Curtis) Hayes and Cynthia Pruitt; her bonus children, Earl Coleman Jr., Patricia Gaines and Leon Coleman; and a family too large for one page.

A homegoing celebration will be held Saturday, February 21, at 11 am at Greater Shiloh Baptist Church.

Savitri Rao, 80, of Edison, New Jersey, died peacefully at home on January 27, 2026. Her grandchildren called her Ajji.

Savitri was born in Mysore, India, in 1946 and came to New Jersey in 1971 to join her husband, Dr. Krishna Rao, with their one-year-old daughter on her lap. When that daughter went back to work in 1998, Savitri moved in and helped raise her three grandchildren. She packed idli in their lunch boxes until they were proud of it and taught every one of them to play carrom, and to cheat at it a little. At 75 she learned to text so she could send each of them a good-morning message every day.

She is survived by Krishna, her husband of 58 years; her children, Asha (Vikram) Menon and Suresh (Priya) Rao; and her grandchildren, Arjun, Meera, Kiran, Nikhil and Anika.

Cremation was held privately. Family and friends are welcome at a prayer gathering at the family home on Saturday, February 7, at 10 am.

Deborah Jean “Deb” Kline, 68, of Boise, Idaho, died September 5, 2026, having outlived every one of her doctors’ predictions by at least two years.

Deb spent 30 years climbing poles as a lineworker for the power company and the rest of her time fishing, hunting birds and burning dinner. She raised two kids and three bird dogs, and she stayed friends with her ex-husband, Rick, who is bringing the potato salad to her memorial because she never trusted anyone else with it.

She is survived by her children, Jess (Aaron) Lund and Cody Kline; her grandson, Wyatt; and her current bird dog, Penny, who is taking it hard. Friends are invited to a memorial at the Kline family cabin on Saturday, September 19, at noon. Wear boots.

Helen Margaret Szabo, 95, of Portland, Maine, died October 2, 2026, with the Sunday crossword half-finished in pen. She would want us to tell you she knew the rest.

Helen answered questions for a living as a reference librarian at the public library for 37 years, and after she retired she kept answering them for free, by phone, to anyone who called. She took up sea kayaking at 70 and gave it up at 88, only because the rental shop closed. She raised her son and daughter to look things up before arguing, which made for long, quiet dinners.

She is survived by her children, Peter Szabo and Ruth (Alan) Greenberg, and four grandchildren, each of whom owes her a library card’s worth of overdue fines. A gathering will be held at the library’s community room on Saturday, October 10, at 1 pm. In place of flowers, please return your library books.