Sheila M. Laurendeau

Auburn - Sheila Laurendeau, 83, of Lewiston ME, died on April 9, 2012.at the Hospice House of Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice in Auburn ME with her family by her side. Sheila was born in Albany NY on August 20, 1928, the oldest of three girls and daughter of Sara (Sally) and John McCabe. She grew up in Rumford RI, then when she was seventeen the family moved to West Barrington RI. She graduated from Bayview Academy and attended Edgewood Academy both in Rhode Island. On December 26, 1951, she married Frederic Daniel Buttner and they raised their family in Sudbury MA. Sheila and Daniel were very athletic, enjoying tennis, hiking, swimming, skiing, and they raised their children to embrace sports as well. When, after twenty years, the marriage ended, Sheila and her daughters moved to New Hampshire, close to the mountains they loved to ski and hike. Sheila later moved to Sarasota FL to care for her mother. In Florida, she indulged her love of opera and mystery novels. She met Maurice Laurendeau at church in the fall of 1992 and eighteen months later they married. Sheila and Maurice spent eighteen joyous years together. They continued to be active, enjoying golf, tennis, and traveling. They spent many happy days exploring the coves and inlets of Maine's coastline on their boat. Sheila loved nature, and became an avid birder and gardener. Maurice passed away in December 2011 and a truly bright and beautiful light was lost forever from all who knew him, perhaps especially Sheila. Just a few weeks later Sheila was diagnosed with cancer. Sheila is survived by her daughters, Anna Buttner of North Quincy MA, and Kathleen Thomas and her husband Dwight Pfundstein of Mashpee MA, and their son Erik Pfundstein of Canton, MA; her sons Stephen Buttner of Florida and Mark Buttner of Arkansas, and her stepchildren and their spouses and families; Lorraine Pandolphe and her husband Tom of West Hartford, Conn, Normand Laurendeau and his wife Marlene of Brunswick ME, and Philippe Laurendeau and his wife Carol, also of Brunswick ME. She is also survived by her sisters, Claire Thompson of Athens, GA, and Patricia Callahan, of Newport, RI, and their children, to whom Sheila was a loving, devoted aunt. She will be missed by all, including her large circle of friends. Online condolences may be expressed at www.thefortingrouplewiston.com

In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver (was read by Sheila's son-in-law, Dwight Pfundstein at the wake)

Look, the trees

are turning

their own bodies

into pillars

of light,

are giving off the rich

fragrance of cinnamon

and fulfillment,

the long tapers

of cattails

are bursting and floating away over

the blue shoulders

of the ponds,

and every pond,

no matter what its

name is, is

nameless now.

Every year

everything

I have ever learned

in my lifetime

leads back to this: the fires

and the black river of loss

whose other side

is salvation,

whose meaning

none of us will ever know.

To live in this world

you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.

Adaptation of poem by Isla Paschal Richardson (was read at the cemetery committal by Sheila's sister, Patricia Callahan)

Tho I've had to leave you,

Whom I love,

To go along the silent way;

Grieve not, nor speak of me

With tears, but laugh and talk

Of me, as if I were beside you.

For who know but I shall

Be, oft times!

I'd come, I'd come could I but

Find the way.

And would not tears and griefs

Be barriers? So, when you hear

A word I used to say. Or touch

A thing I loved, let not your

Thoughts of me be sad, for

I am loving you just as I

Always have.