Paula Christine Callentine

It is with incomprehensible sadness and endless love that we mourn the passing of Paula Christine Callentine during the Wolf Moon on January 4th, 2026 at 80 years young. She passed away lovingly surrounded at home after over a decade long battle with cancer. Among so many other qualities, her ability to fight so she could stay with her family, was a force to be reckoned with. To those who knew her, she was superwoman.

Paula will be missed by her four children and her nine grand and great grandchildren, who will always be cherished in their granny’s heart. She also leaves behind her extended family and so many chosen family and friends. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ronald Callentine (2021), and her beloved dog Pippi (2025).

Paula was born in Dover, Ohio in 1945 on the winter solstice to Billie and Paul Kneppelt. In high school she was a majorette and, while she would often refused to acknowledge it, she was incredibly talented in the arts, from illustration to her innumerable music talents. She was offered a scholarship for her gifts as a flutist and piccolist in a time where women weren't often given such opportunities. She married her childhood sweetheart, Ronald L Callentine in 1966 at 20 years old, and they had 4 children. Professionally, she received a bachelors degree and practiced as a speech and hearing therapist until she retired for the much more difficult job as the full time mom and CEO of the Callentine family. Much of the time she could be found baking, playing sudoku with an iced latte in hand, gardening, playing with her children and grandkids, and creating countless family traditions and the most magical birthdays and holidays. With a twinkle in her eye she could always be heard by the speed of her feet and by her whistling of a song. She would often say that her children and grandchildren were her world and her joy.

Her family would like to share that they could not have been gifted a more loving, joyful, funny, or magical mom and granny. She was their fiercest advocate and fountain of all goodnesses. The mama bear of all mama bears of protection. Her soul was rare and precious - filled with innocence, shining with a light so brilliant that it could never have been eclipsed. She spread love, laughter, hope, and sunshine to everyone who had the honor of meeting her. Forever a wisher of world peace, she would want to remind anyone she could to be kind to those around them and to embrace life and live to the fullest.

Among the countless lessons and gifts she shared, her family would like to highlight the gift in teaching anyone she could how to love and embrace love, the value of play, laughter, and magic, believing in the things that cannot be seen but still surround us, the preciousness of creativity and imagination, to be kind and giving to others, to embrace beauty and the creation of it, to have a 'Coke and a smile', and to believe in dreams, wishes, and miracles. By example, she taught that even when life knocks you down and you feel broken, to get back up again.

She'd want everyone she could reach to be reminded to embrace life and to LIVE every second of it, that not everything should be planned and to value spontaneity, to believe in goodness, and that even the smallest of actions can create so much change.. She'd wish the world to take your breath away with awe and she stood by her belief in Que Sera, Sera, Hakuna Matata, and Carpe Diem. It is with these reminders that she requested that a celebration of life be held in 6 months from now, in lieu of a funeral, giving her family time to grieve and adjust. Arrangements will be announced at a later date. Any inquiries prior to our announcement may be sent to [email protected]. Updates on her celebration of life will also be updated on her memorial website: Everloved.com/life-of/paula-callentine/

To share online condolences or a memory, please visit www.schoedinger.com or everloved.

We would like to thank her medical team Katie Carson, Dan Stover, Dr. Jungwirth, Emily Walters and Jose Moreno for walking along with her through her long battle of health issues and our incredible chaplain, Chaplain Lee. We would also like to thank her caregivers and the amazing women in her life who helped lift her up and offered care during extraordinarily difficult times- thank you for becoming a part of our family.

Her family asks for privacy during this time and requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Glitter Guild, a local non profit who support those with long term medical hardship, and thanks them for being such a support during unspeakably difficult times. Their info is as follows:

The Glitter Girls Guild

9550 Dublin Road

Suite B

Powell, OH 43065

614-233-1324

[email protected]

Alternatively, given her fondness for birdwatching, we request donations be given to the National Audubon Society.

To our mom and the center of our world: the higher essence gained an incredible angel when you left this earth- please don't forget to come visit from time to time. You belong among the wildflowers, in the trees and in the birds you so loved, in sunlight and summer breezes, snowflakes, the oceans and whale songs, and the heavenly stars. Thank you for showering the world with love and sunshine. As you often referenced in recent years, just as in Mary Poppins Returns, there's nowhere to go but up and we are grateful you chose your sky blue balloon to float to comfort and out of suffering. You will always be fiercely loved and missed. Rest peacefully in the arms of the heavens, love, and know that you were made of a light that could not be dimmed as it shined so brightly within you. When you passed, streaks of sunbeams broke through the clouds, as a reminder of the goodness that exists. We hope you know that you will always be our love, life, and one and only. And, until we meet again, we hope that you keep dancing with diamonds on the soles of your heavenly shoes.