Vilda Mary Donovan

Vilda Mary (Comeau) Donovan arrived into the loving arms of her Nova Scotian immigrant parents in Medford, Massachusetts on February 24, 1927 and left this earth peacefully on July 4, 2023 at Taylor Care Center in Jacksonville, Florida with her three children at her bedside.

She was the daughter of Alfred and Margaret Comeau and the oldest of 7 children. When she started school she could only speak French, as her parents had arrived from the French Acadian community of Meteghan, Nova Scotia and only spoke their native tongue at their two-bedroom bungalow home in Weymouth, Mass. But after recognizing their eldest daughter’s grades had suffered due to her lack of English, her parents began speaking English at home. At Weymouth High School, she was an honor student and took business classes gaining proficiency in shorthand and typing 80 words per minute. She was described in her high school yearbook as “A gentle maiden, she, full, calm and mannerly.”

She found the love of her life James “Jim” Donovan who was, no doubt, taken by her charms and they married in 1948. Together they had three children, Maureen, Joan, and Bill, and the family settled in a white Cape Cod house across the street from her parents where they enjoyed spending time with their family and many friends and summer days in Dennisport on the Cape. However, a severe blizzard in 1962 ultimately sent them moving to Jacksonville, Florida. They were married 40 lively years, enjoying travel to places like Ireland, Switzerland, France and Germany, visiting their family back in Weymouth every summer, and socializing with their multitude of friends. They especially enjoyed golf together and went on many golfing weekends and vacations, including tee times at the Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland and the venerable Pebble Beach in CA. They worked the Greater Jacksonville Open at Deerwood Country Club and then at the fabled TPC at Sawgrass. Vilda even made a birdie on the famous 17th hole!

Vilda enjoyed her role as a homemaker and raising her young children, but after they started school, she began work as a part-time secretary at several different offices and worked until her 80s. Among her various posts, her favorite job was at the cancer center at Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville.

One of the most important things in her life was her faith. She was an active member of San Jose Catholic Church and made many lifelong friends there. She walked to church each morning for daily Mass. And her women church friends would gather regularly for bridge, rotating once a month at one another’s homes. Vilda played bridge into her 90s.

One of her favorite things to do later in life was to cruise whether to the Caribbean or as far as a European river cruise but among her favorites was her “sisters cruise“. Once a year for many years she and her three sisters would board a cruise ship and have the best time together!

Vilda lost her beloved husband in 1988. She is also predeceased by her brothers Earl, Andrew, and Robert Comeau, her sisters Laura Driscoll and Lucille Geran, and two great grandchildren Kylie and Gavin Schmidt. She is survived by her sister Anna Fahnley of Naples and her sister-in-law Pat Comeau of Quincy, Mass., her daughter Maureen and son-in-law Tim Last, daughter Joan and son-in-law Bruce Allen, son Bill Donovan and daughter-in-law Sheri, five grandchildren, Jessica (Allen) Rossello, Jaime (Allen) Schmidt, Karen Last, David Last, and Elijah Donovan, and six great grandchildren, Emily, Natalie and Josh Rossello, Dailyn and Lily Schmidt, and Rowan Last.

Vilda was a person of faith, family, friends, and virtue. She always had a kind word, a positive attitude and never missed a thing, especially a party. She will be missed by all who knew and loved her.

A funeral mass will be held on Saturday July 22, at 11am at San Jose Catholic Church, 3619 Toledo Road, Jacksonville, FL.