Ann A. Arsenault

Auburn - Ann A. Arsenault, 87, died July 2, 2013, at the Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice House in Auburn, Maine. Born Ann Alberta Marie Allen in Rumford, Maine, on November 14, 1925, to George Allen and Bertha (St. Onge) Allen, Ann dedicated herself to her husband and her six children. Her lessons of love and strength of will were the glue that bound her family.

Annie, as she was known to her seven younger siblings – Charlie, as she was lovingly called by her husband Jim – graduated from Mexico High School and, in her early twenties, worked as a switchboard operator for the Oxford Paper Company in Rumford. She left that position to dedicate herself to raising her family. She occasionally worked as a substitute teacher and, once her children were older, she worked at Bass Shoe. She was an avid reader and had an incisive mind. She loved traveling and exploring with Big Jim, who she married in 1946. For many years they resided in Canton and later in Mexico, Maine. They enjoyed spending summers at their Prince Edward Island cottage and winters at their home in Daytona Beach, Florida. She was predeceased by her husband and best friend of 56 years, James L.E. Arsenault, who died August 14, 2002. Ann was also predeceased by her parents and her brother George E. Allen Jr., who died in March 2012.

She is survived by her six children, Patricia and husband Joel Foster of Rotonda West, Florida; Sandra Martinez and companion Kris Jacobsen of Hartford, Connecticut; Gildace J. Arsenault and Ann’s much loved daughter-in-law Kay L. Herbert of Sumner, Maine; Victoria and husband Al Rabisauckas of Rotonda West, Florida; Janice Arsenault and companion Dan Cote of Jay, Maine; and Joyce Arsenault and fiancée Anita Whitney of Augusta, Maine; ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Ann also leaves behind four brothers, Robert and his wife Pauline of Lewiston; Norman and close friend, Claudette Violette of Lewiston; James and his wife, Laurel of Winthrop; and Richard of Lewiston; two sisters, Dianne Dutton of East Vassalboro, and Joann Jameson of Brunswick and Wildwood, Florida.

Her family deeply appreciates the exceptional care she received at Clover Health Care and the Hospice House. She battled Parkinson’s, with all its challenges, and she did so with unwavering strength and remarkable grace. She tenaciously held to life not from a fear of death but from a love of living and of her family.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Ann’s name to the Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice House 236 Stetson Road, Auburn, ME 04210 or to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Grand Central Station, P.O. Box 4777, New York, NY 10163-4777, or at www.michaeljfox.org/donations.