Deborah Lynn Requa

Deb Requa was born (Deborah Lynn Shear) in Havre de Grace, Maryland on January 17, 1955 as the eldest of four siblings - Sandy Murphy of Houston, Texas, Carol Furtado of Purcellville, Virginia and Ted Shear of Exeter, R.I.. Deb’s parents, Beverly and Ralph Shear, settled in Edgewood, Maryland, and Deb graduated from Edgewood High School in 1973 where she played the flute in the marching band. She had a special interest in the variety of trees and insects around her – especially butterflies. Her insect collection was on display at the high school for others to enjoy for many years to come. West Virginia University in Morgantown was where she earned her B.S. in Secondary Education and then went on to teaching high school math in the small town of Franklin, West Virginia.

Thereafter, Deb moved to Charlottesville, Virginia to continue her career teaching math at Albemarle High School. It was in Charlottesville that she met her husband Mark. They soon embarked on a sailing adventure and took a year off from their professional lives to sail to Florida on the Golliwog. They were married in December 1984 and settled near St. Petersburg, Florida.

Deb was really excited to move to the Sunshine State. Mark started an engineering career at Honeywell Aerospace; while Deb went on to earn a degree in Accounting. This was after deciding to turn down a teaching job that would require her to also coach boys’ wrestling. She graduated from USF in 1988 and started a job at E-Systems as a cost control analyst. Deb especially enjoyed the camaraderie on the Space projects during those early years.

She finished her career at Raytheon after more than 30 years in 2018 and received her cancer diagnosis very shortly thereafter.

And now….the rest of the story.

Deb was born on the same day as Sherry Lewis, the creator of “Lambchop”. Perhaps, this somewhat explains her love for “woolies”, as she called sheep. Deb also had many stuffed “kids”: Ruby, the Rocky Mountain Red Squirrel, Camey, the Giraffe puppet, Hondo, the armadillo and his adopted brother Austin, Bosco the bear, Nellie the horse, Shawn the sheep and Colin the owl (who was a finger puppet!).

Deb loved to name things – like trucks and cars. There was “Truck-lee”, “Truck-Bob and Truck-Robert”, Wally the Walleroo (the Subaru Outback), Lena (after a Javelina in Arizona), “Pearl”, “George”, “Merc and Dirk” - the dinghy with a Mercury engine. Even the porch lizards had names like “Tarzan” and “Jane”.

Audubon Field Guides, lighthouses, beach walks, fish, whales, dolphins, birds, squirrels, seahorses, llamas, dragonflies, butterflies, and all types of trees and flowers - especially red and white carnations were amongst her favorite things. Florida put a stop to her love for gardening, but she was accomplished at it. She liked “Life is Good” shirts and was even quite a seamstress – making her own clothes when she was a teacher. She did actually think beagles were cute and recently toyed with the idea of getting Mark a Chihuahua and naming it “El Jefe” (the boss).

She found the Hallmark Channel movies on a Sunday (she chuckled that her boss referred to it as the lobotomy channel), “White Christmas”, “Legally Blond”, “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” (“She thinks I’m cute!” was a line she loved), “Bambi”, the spaghetti scene from the “Lady and the Tramp “and finally the Elf Movie, which grew on her when he named the 4 food groups: “Candy”, “Candy Cane”, “Candy Corn” and “Syrup”. Of course shows like Jeopardy, The Price is Right and the Wheel of Fortune and playing Sudoku were things she liked, as well as reading Dr. Seuss and “Squirrel seeks Chipmunk” with a friend, home improvement projects like painting (“Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me.). Listening to WWNF and WUSF on the radio and CD’s were also at the top of her list.

All who knew Deb, remember her as being fun and helpful. Keeping the Candy bowl in her office for others and not eating it herself is a reflection who she was, as was her habit of buying tons of Halloween candy and handing out half of it. She loved Halloween, as she did Christmas and other holidays. Her lights lit up the dock, reindeer ornaments adorned the tree and special towels were hung in the kitchen and bathroom. At Easter she had “Rosebud” the Easter Bunny and her special candy basket. She also loved buying tools as gifts for Christmas from Leroy at Sears and was a master at precisely wrapping each carefully selected gift with oodles of tape. Family “pass alongs” like her rocking chair and sewing machine were very special.

Deb was also quite the inventor. Good examples are her talking about the digital speedometer long before it appeared on the market, as well as transparent hurricane shutters she named “Visi-Cane”. Oh well.

Mark and Deb truly lived their life to the fullest on the water in Redington Shores. They enjoyed sunsets on the dock after a yummy barbecue or delicious meal concocted by Deb, whose hobby was cooking. She would read her cooking magazines standing at the kitchen counter and flagged recipes, which she never fully made but incorporated the ideas into her own creations. Shopping and clipping coupons for the best deals was part of it. She loved strawberries, lamb chops, chardonnay, hot dogs, Pinot Noir, shrimp, champagne, sweet potatoes and oysters, as well as a tiny bit of ice cream each night. And of course there were the china sets and Waterford crystal collection. She didn’t have a set, but rather one of each type. That is just who she was.

Deb loved to provision the sailboat for leisurely cruises or for Mark and his racing friends. She was famous for her “Debwiches” and masterful salads. Shopping and going to art shows with her friends was a favorite pastime. Vacations usually involved a trip to visit family in Texas or the Northeast and included an adventure to nearby places. Magical places for her were Mystic, CT and Newport, Rhode Island, North Carolina furniture shopping, ¨South of the Border”, Minnesota, California, the Pacific Northwest and Key West. She enjoyed scenic drives, fancy dinners, state fairs and zoos, John Prine….. and of course Jimmy Buffett.

She dreamt of completing the circumnavigation of America’s Great Loop in a comfortable powerboat and taking road trips to national parks and other beautiful places.

If Deb were here now, I am sure she would recite an old maritime blessing she had in her living room:

¨Here’s to the Tall Ships. “Here’s to Small Ships” “Here’s to all the ships on the sea. But the best ships are friendships. Here’s to you and me.”

But I believe that the standing toast of the Royal Navy from that back of the Pusser’s rum bottle is most appropriate to send her on her way: So, here is to:

“The Wind that blows, the ship that goes, and the lass that loved the sailor!”

Arrangements were made under the direction of Garden Sanctuary Funeral Home, 7950 131st Street, Seminole, FL 33776 / 727-391-0121.