We, the children of Donna Mae Tubbs, are heartbroken to announce the death of our mother on Sunday, June 26, 2016.
Following a severe stroke in March of 2015, our mother’s final year was for her a difficult struggle of loss, rehabilitation, transition and transformation from which both her body and her spirit never truly recovered.
She has found peace at last. She has entered the Kingdom of God and is in the presence of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
On May 19, 1928, she was born the youngest of three children to Laura Mae and Samuel Cruikshank of Curwensville.
Preceded in death by her parents, brother and sister, our mother is the last in her family lineage.
Many times our mother recalled to us with deep fondness the magical childhood she experienced within a loving, nurturing family and a safe and sharing community.
Among her most treasured memories was playing with friends under the one arc street light on Bloomington Avenue.
Our mother’s values, beliefs and strength of character were first shaped within the safety and joys of her childhood.
It is sweet to hope that she is running once again with her friends under the arc lamp.
Our mother and father, Dudley Tubbs, were married on July 14, 1949. Son, David was born in 1951, daughter, Debra in 1954 and son, Dana in 1958.
Her four grandchildren are Scott and Steven, sons of Dana and his wife, Pamela, and Sarah and Joshua, children of Debra and her husband, Jeffrey Sykes.
Her great-grandchildren are Nicholas, Jaidyn and Allianna, children of Sarah, and Sophia, Cecilia and Greyson, children of Scott and Danielle Tubbs.
Our mother’s pride in her lineage cannot be measured within this brief remembrance.
In the autumn of 1959, our father’s job location changed. We said goodbye to our special, little house on Pennsylvania Avenue, which our mother loved and never wanted to leave, and we moved to a farm south of Luthersburg.
The remainder of her life was reshaped by this transition. She lived alone on the farm for 56 years after our father’s death in 1973 and until her stroke. The isolation and loneliness were hardships for her, as she aged, yet she would not leave.
For 28 years, she was employed by DuBois Middle School as the attendance office administrative assistant. She was proud of her career, as the perfection of her contributions attested.
She reached far beyond her responsibilities to help the students who passed her way and the colleagues with whom she worked. In so doing, she touched and enriched their lives in ways which many remember even today.
Family and faith were the focal points of our mother’s life. To both, she gave her devotion and greatest sacrifices.
Our mother’s favorite day was Sunday. She loved to teach, most especially both young and adult Sunday schools, beginning as a teenager and continuing until her stroke.
Combining her loves of public speaking and teaching, she trained and faithfully maintained her certification as a lay speaker within her church community. She was proud and honored following her stroke to be made Lay Speaker Emeritus within the United Methodist Church.
She was a self-taught musician, and she played both piano and organ for the Luthersburg Methodist Church. Our mother loved and was thoroughly knowledgeable in classical music.
Our mother’s sharp intellect and warm wit were paired with deeply emotional insight. She loved people. She loved animals. Our mother enriched not only the lives of many dogs and cats that she rescued and nurtured, but also her own life by the companionship of the creatures she so loved.
Our mother strove to offend no one. To this purpose, she chose her words and behavior in the pursuit of kindness and forgiveness.
Her courage and determination were profound, and no more clearly revealed than in the final year of her life.
She treasured her independence. She rarely asked others for help, yet she offered herself generously wherever possible to her family and throughout her community. Our mother was devastated to be robbed by stroke of this independence.
We, her children, ask that in lieu of flowers, family and friends make donations to serve her community and her beloved causes.
Most especially, please consider the following organizations: Brady Township Volunteer Fire, Rescue and Ambulance Company Inc., P.O. Box 157, Luthersburg, PA 15848 and Best Friends Animal Society, a no-kill animal rescue and sanctuary, bestfriends.org, 5001 Angel Canyon Rd., Kanab, UT 84741.
Your kindness is all she would request, and in this way you perpetuate her kindness, her love and generosity, and the gentle grace of her soul.
