Barbara Peters Reardon, 95, passed away peacefully in the arms of her
granddaughter, Marie Hamilton, and Marie’s husband, Mat Forget, on
November 10, 2023. The hours before her death were a shared circle of
music and song with her daughter, Liz Reardon; her sister, Eileen
Peters Collins; her niece, Maura Campbell Brigham; and the Lamoille
Valley Home Health & Hospice chaplain, Danny, who accompanied
Marie’s Irish harp with his guitar.
Barbara was a gifted
artist, a brave adventurer, an empathetic counselor and the epitome
of a tough Irishwoman. Her heart was open to the world, and her
presence blessed those who knew her.
Barbara was born in
Troy, N.Y., on April 13, 1928, to Marie Moore Peters and William
Peters. Her family subsequently moved to Glens Falls, N.Y., where she
made lifelong friendships and which she always considered her
hometown.
Like any other
teenager, she had a crush on a handsome basketball player, Ed
Reardon, who played for the Fort Edward, N.Y., “Flying Forts.”
(This was World War II.) He went into the U.S. Navy after graduation,
and she went to the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y. They
reconnected at a Christmas Eve dance after the war, and they were
together from then on. Ed and Barbara moved to Washington, D.C., upon
their marriage, and their daughter, Mary Elizabeth, arrived 9 months
later. In the middle of joy were the seeds of tragedy — Ed was
diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma shortly after his
daughter was born.
After her
husband’s death, Barbara returned to Glens Falls and the sheltering
love of her family. She had a tough row to hoe as a young widow in
the late ’50s, but she forged a new future at Le Moyne College, a
Jesuit School in Syracuse, N.Y., where she started as a housemother
in the freshman dorm, Tekakwitha Hall, and progressed to dean of
women. Her neighbors and friends were future senator Daniel Patrick
Moynihan and future firebrand Father Dan Berrigan. During this time,
she attended Boston College, where she obtained her post-masters
certificate in counseling, commuting on weekends back to Syracuse.
In 1962, she
was recruited by the Queensbury, N.Y., school district to serve as
the first guidance counselor for their newly built high school.
Barbara took the opportunity to raise her daughter among family and
friends, and for the next 26 years she mentored and supported so many
young people and their families who still are grateful for her
wisdom.
In 1972, she
took a sabbatical and joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps for a year on
the Colville Reservation in Washington State, where she took care of
the eighth-grade girls in a residential school and was recruited by
the tribe to work with them as the school was returned to the
community. She decided that she needed to be back home with her own
and kept her family close for the rest of her life.
She held room
in her heart for her son-in-law, Bill Hamilton, and joyously welcomed
her grandchildren, Daniel and Marie. After Bill’s death in a car
accident in January 1993, she became “Barbie,” the loving, caring
and occasionally grumpy grandma.
In her
retirement, she developed her vision and skills as an artist. Her
horizons expanded to the Canadian Maritimes, where she became a
member of a small fishing community on an island off the Acadian
Peninsula in New Brunswick. She was a longtime resident of Lakeview
Park in Shelburne and spent her last year in Waterville, Vt., where
she was lovingly cared for by Marie and Mat, with the assistance of
the wonderful staff from Lamoille Home Health & Hospice.
A mass of
Christian burial will be celebrated on Saturday, December 9, 11 a.m.,
at St. Mary’s Church in Glens Falls, N.Y., with interment at St.
Mary’s Cemetery in South Glens Falls, N.Y. There are no calling
hours. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations in
Barbara’s name to Lamoille Home Health & Hospice, 54 Farr Ave.,
Morristown, VT 05661.
This article appears in Nov 22-28, 2023.