Phyllis Hartman Kushnir went home on Thursday, 9 July 2020 at age 86. She was born on 3 March 1934 in Mathias, West Virginia, the eldest of four children to parents Charles and Eva Hartman. She grew up as a Depression-era farmer’s daughter. After graduating from Mathias High School, she went to nursing school at Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Being a nurse defined Phyllis, she worked hard and achieved a great deal in her chosen profession, going from staff nurse to nursing educator to nursing supervisor. She became a professional woman in a day when that was not so common.
Phyllis was a strong and determined woman who never gave up on anything. Through her independent spirit, compassion, and courage, she provided a tremendous role model for her daughter and family.
Phyllis was a woman to whom family meant everything. Throughout her life, she always maintained, nurtured, and cherished those ties with both her blood relatives and with family acquired through marriage. Family was her foundation, her bedrock, her source of strength.
Dedication and loyalty to her friends was also of significant importance to Phyllis. She was committed to and caring of her friends throughout her life. The bonds of friendship went deep with Phyllis, and she cherished the memories, the laughter, tears, good and difficult times. Her best friend of 50 years, Priscilla Durden, went home before her in January 2020. They celebrated life and friendship for 50 years and are now together again.
Phyllis never gave up on love. She went on to marry twice more after she and her first husband, Wayne Arthur, went their separate ways. Bill Lunglhofer and Steve Kushnir, wonderful men who were unique in their own ways, brought worlds of joy, happiness, and love to Phyllis. She would not have traded those adventures, experiences, and love for anything. She cared for both of them during long illnesses, and ensured they passed on knowing they were loved.
Phyllis is survived by her daughter, Anita Schmidt, and her husband, COL(Ret.) Rock Schmidt, her grandchildren, Michael Yarborough, Rachel Bair, Frances Salas, and Heidi Hillman, her sister, Jean Hartman, her brother, Ralph Hartman, and her many other family members. Her sister, Juanita Hartman Whetzel, passed on 3 November 1999.
The family would like to express their deepest appreciation and gratitude to both the Harmony and Watercrest Senior Living facilities in Columbia, SC who provided Phyllis with excellent care and quality of life during her last years.
The family would like to suggest that donations in her memory be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Phyllis Hartman Kushnir was a strong, compassionate, loyal, independent, hard-working, and determined woman. A beautiful, elegant, and graceful lady whose life we celebrate and who we will remember always!
The Day God Called You Home
God looked around His garden and found an empty space.
Then He looked down upon the earth and saw your tired face.
He put his arms around you, lifted you to rest.
God’s garden must be beautiful, for He only takes the best.
He knew you were suffering.
He knew you were in pain.
He saw the road was getting rough, and the hills were hard to climb.
So He closed your weary eyes, and whispered, “Peace by thine.”
It broke our hearts to lose you, but you did not go alone.
For part of us went with you, the day God called you home.
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