Merry Ellen Reymond

Merry was a prize-winning short story writer and the author of three novels, “Burning Down the House” (as Merry McInerney), “Dog People” (as Merry McInerney-Whiteford) and “If Wishes Were Horses” (as Merry Whiteford). She was at work on a fourth novel, “My Mother’s Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook,” when complications from multiple sclerosis took away her ability to read and write.

Despite that loss and the cascading medical problems that afflicted her over the next 25 years, Merry was an indomitable spirit, a person of relentless good cheer, and someone who tried always to put the needs of others first. She was a good friend of Bill W. for more than 30 years.

Merry was born in Massachusetts in 1959, a proud daughter of Topsfield, which she would tell you without prompting is home to the oldest county fair in the United States. Merry attended Andover (Phillips Academy), then studied philosophy at Vassar College, Syracuse University and the University of Michigan.

She moved to Norfolk, Virginia, in 1998, where she met and, in 2006, married journalist Dave Hendrickson. The two lived in Ocean View until 2018, when they moved to North Carolina.

Merry was a doting pet parent over the years to her dogs Freddie, Bailey and Little Bear, and to a long line of cats, from Julia, the first, to Macavity, the last, who misses her terribly.

Merry loved movies, the older the better. Visitors to her home likely saw at least one. Her husband occasionally reminded her that they didn’t stop making movies in 1960.

Those who ever helped Merry move (thank you!) know that she was a lover, and keeper, of books. For a while, a rental storage unit became necessary as an adjunct library. After an MS flare left her unable to read, Merry spent months quietly - almost secretively - teaching herself to read again. Her writing remained limited, but she could craft biting 140-character responses to the trolls of Twitter. She never shied away from an argument.

On Dec. 4, 2020, the end of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Merry suffered a massive heart attack. She was not expected to live. Paramedics estimated that she had gone without air for 18 minutes. She was in a coma for eight days and in intensive care the rest of the month.

She was released from the hospital on New Year’s Eve and celebrated with a hot fudge sundae and a very short, slow dance in the living room. She and Dave thought of the last four and a half years as their bonus time, and tried to enjoy each day they were given. Her spirits remained remarkably high through the morning of her death.

Merry is survived by her husband; by her sisters, Robin Reymond Harnist, Janice LeBel and Courtney Travis, and their children and grandchildren; by her dearest friends, Ann Holter, Nancy Chapman and Andrew Morse; and by Rebecca Anderson, a spiritual daughter from her second marriage.

A memorial/celebration of life will be held in Norfolk, Virginia, in late summer.