Claudia Waterhouse

Claudia Waterhouse passed away peacefully on the winter solstice, due to complications from Parkinson’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia. A long-time resident of Bedford, Massachusetts, she spent the last six years on Cape Cod—first in Barnstable and then, as her condition worsened, in memory care in Yarmouth and finally in a nursing home in Brewster. Her family is grateful to the many nurses and other caregiving professionals who made her difficult final years as peaceful and dignified as possible.

The oldest of four, Claudia grew up in Holden, Massachusetts. As a child, she enjoyed music, reading, and nature. As a teen, she earned the Girl Scout’s highest honor, the Gold Award, after which time she committed to spending as little time sleeping outdoors as possible. After graduating from Wachusett Regional High School in 1967, she matriculated at William Smith College, where she majored in French and, by her own account, minored in Contract Bridge. Her most formative experience came during her junior year abroad at the University of Nice in southern France. There she cultivated a life-long passion for the French language and culture, as well as precious friendships that endured for decades.

A year after graduating from college, she met Bill Waterhouse, who would be her partner for nearly fifty years. They married in 1976, welcomed children Ben and Molly, and moved to Bedford in 1983. Never content to sit around and make house, Claudia worked as a regional manager and director at several personnel staffing companies. She took tremendous pride in matching job seekers with opportunities, a skill she extended to her personal life. Her own kids and their friends, as well as cousins and other family friends, all benefited from being hired out as temps at one point or another. Her most recent position, heading up the staffing wing of an editorial services company, allowed her to combine her personnel skills with her love of books, reading, and the written word.

While she worked hard to support herself and her family, she was never the type to define herself by her job. What mattered most to her was the life of the mind. She was fascinated by everything she could learn and inspired to teach everyone she could. She read historical fiction voraciously, loved traveling to Maine, France, Italy, and Brazil, and adored language and languages. She would just as quickly correct your grammar and proofread your résumé as whip you in a game of Gin Rummy or Trivial Pursuit. (If there are any typographical or syntactical errors in this obituary, she would never let me hear the end of it.) Every evening, it seemed, she had a different commitment—from book clubs and volunteering to Italian and Portuguese classes and voice lessons. Her happiest moments came in the choir of Trinity Church in Concord. Singing, she once said, “is the only thing that makes me feel like I’m flying.”

In her later years, even as her degenerative disease limited her abilities to stretch her mind, she remained passionately committed to her children and especially her grandchildren, whom she cherished and inspired. She was, according to her t-shirt, the “Best Mimi Ever.”

Claudia was preceded in death by Bill, her husband of 45 years, as well as her parents Roger and Pauline Perry. She is survived by her children Molly and Ben, daughter- and son-in-law Daniela and Mark, and her grandchildren Gabriel, Luna, Alina, and Simone, as well as her siblings, nieces and nephew, and cherished friends around the world.

Her funeral will be held on January 24 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Concord. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you consider making a donation to the Parkinson’s Foundation, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, or your local library, or that you simply follow her example by appreciating the important things in life and being good to each other.