Melissa F Cappella

Born in New York City and raised in Connecticut, she called Florida her home in 1999, accepting a job with Best Software (now Sage) in St. Petersburg. She was most recently a Senior Solutions Analyst at Sage, and she was the founder of Suncoast Natural Learning Center — a non-profit organization that encourages children to pursue their passions and naturally invest in their futures in place of conventional schooling.

Melissa was most passionate about the natural learning abilities of kids. She adamantly supported a so-called “unschooling” method that embraces every child’s individuality and encourages them to pursue their personal passions and talents, thereby naturally investing in learning and in their futures. She successfully pioneered with others the first ever natural learning conference in the State of Florida in 2012, “Un in the Sun,” which attracted participants from across the United States.

She also enjoyed every sunset from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico that she witnessed — sometimes actually seeing the rare Green Flash atop the fading sun that her meteorologist husband, Chris, would excitedly point out, and sometimes simply respectfully accepting his declaration that it was there.

Melissa felt her nirvana was in the rolling hills of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. She cherished green fields flowing into the backdrop of autumn’s explosion of fiery foliage, and she would diligently arrange vacations each year to drink in the vivid and heartwarming spectacle with her husband and two boys, Daniel and Ryan.

A strong, determined, no-nonsense woman, Melissa faced her cancer head on, aiming to either beat it or keep it in the background of her life. She focused solely on her family, her beloved boys in particular, and on being a Mom that her sons would feel comfortable talking to and being with as well as loved and supported by every day.

She is survived by her husband of 19 years, Christopher Cappella, and two sons, Daniel and Ryan, as well as her mother Mary Alice Flint, all of Largo; father George S. Flint and stepmother Emily Flint of New York City; sister Julia Flint of Burbank, California; brother Anthony Flint of Brookline, Massachusetts, brother Alexander Flint of San Francisco, California, as well as her aunt Martha Flint of Mystic, Connecticut.

Her family wishes to thank wholeheartedly the many doctors and medical professionals that cared for her at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Florida, as well as at Main Street Medical in Dunedin. We are especially thankful for the thoughtful direction and expertise of the cancer specialists that made it possible for Melissa to live these recent years to see another sunset, watch her boys grow, and to be the Mom that her family needed her to be for as long as she could: Hitesh Patel, Peter W. Blumencranz, and William R. Redwood.

Memorial contributions may be made directly to the research of Dr. Patel at the Florida Cancer Specialists Foundation http://foundation.flcancer.com/ so that he and his colleagues can finally realize a cure to this dreaded disease.

Tributes can be made either here or online at legacy.com.