Mary Virginia Pugh Hurter

Mary Virginia Pugh Hurter, free spirit, beloved mother, sister and Grandmary, completed her life at home on Galveston bay, January 28th, 2013, at 79 years old. She was a solitude-loving introvert that everyone wanted to be around; she listened deeply to each person, spoke with empathy and had a loud, spontaneous laugh. She danced barefoot, stuck flowers on her station wagon in the 70’s, and cleaned house to her children’s loud rock and roll. She passionately loved cooking and savored every bite, collecting new recipes to try until the very end of her life.

Born in Houston on August 4, 1933 to Ralph and Nell Mick Pugh, Mary grew up in Thompson’s oil camp in the deep woods of the Brazos river bottomlands. She knew life to be mystical and mysterious from her earliest days. Earth was her beloved home. She related to each bug, bird, blade of grass and live oak in her childhood Eden, and throughout her life she arranged to spend as much time as possible in the mountains of Colorado or on the bay.

She finished her high school years in Iago, Texas., and began the study of Fine Arts at the University of Colorado in Boulder. One summer she traveled up to Austin for a fraternity party with her sister, Nina. There she met Roland Hurter, a young engineer who had just finished school on the GI bill. Roland serenaded her with his ukulele in a canoe on Bull Creek and won her heart. She married at 18 in her parents’ large back yard filled with pecan trees, determined to be a good wife, mother, and new Catholic.

She and Roland raised four children and worked hard building a future together. While Mary and Roland were beginning their family, they helped establish St. Ambrose church in Houston. At 30, Mary had a personal experience of God as overwhelming love, which informed her life and stimulated a desire for life-long theological reading and understanding.

For the next twenty years, Mary raised her children and kept a warm and welcoming home, reading theology on the side. She and Roland worked with the American Field Service while their children were in high school. They opened their home to many foreign students, most dear of which were Francesca and Luigi Colombo of Italy, and established loving and lasting relationships with the Japanese, Italian, and Swiss families their children stayed with. During this time, Mary managed to continue her personal spiritual journey, working with her spiritual director and volunteering at Houston’s Covenant House and with Houston Hospice. Summers were spent in the little cabin in southern Colorado, surrounded by blue spruce, aspen, hummingbirds, children and the spotted trout she caught – and expertly fried in an old black skillet.

In her 50’s, Mary entered into the intense self-exploration for the Clinical Pastoral Education that led to her to becoming a chaplain at Memorial Hospital Southwest. She later worked at St. Mary’s Seminary, where she trained men preparing to be priests. She was a trained, intuitive chaplain and counselor to many, both on the job and off. The next decade brought the designing and building of a beautiful home near Lake Conroe, and the beginning of her career as Grandmary to seven grandchildren, each treasured for his or her uniqueness. These years also brought the need to care for Roland in his journey with Alzheimer’s, which she did with skill and compassion.

In her last decade, Mary moved herself and Roland to their house on Galveston Bay, where they had spent many summers with their children in earlier years, sharing the warm gulf breezes with gulls, pelicans, herons and roseate spoonbills. There she perfected her shrimp gumbo and fish soup and survived a life-changing bout of pneumonia, as well as Roland’s death followed immediately by the destruction of her home by Hurricane Ike in 2008. With the help of her children, she rebuilt her house and enjoyed almost five more years at the Bay--icing on the cake. Reading the paper every morning, loving the solitude, welcoming weekend visits from family, she lived stoically with COPD, happily independent.

Throughout her life, Mary found time to express her deep awe and appreciation of life’s beauty through poetry and painting. She studied and published poetry in the 1980s and returned to oil painting after Roland died. One of her last big endeavors was driving to Houston to take painting classes, until she could no longer carry herself, her paints, and her little dog, Sugar, up the stairs. When asked her religious affiliation at the beginning of hospice care in her home only weeks before her death, she said, “I guess you could say I am a nature lover.” After reflection, she added, “…a sophisticated nature lover.” As usual, she got to the heart of the matter. Her peaceful death came as a gift as she remained in her home, surrounded by her family. She is survived by her sister, Nina Ransom of San Diego, children, Nina Hurter and Wayne White of Austin, Katie Hurter of Spring and her son Owen, Clara and David Mullins of Harrisonburg, VA and their children Rebecca and Katherine, and John and Kristin Hurter of Missouri City and their children Nicholas, Julia, Lillian, and Emmeline. She was and always will be treasured by her children and their families.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Nature Conservancy (www.mynature.org/donate), The Alzheimer’s Association (http://www.alz.org/), or the Immaculate Conception Church Scholarship Fund, 608 Fifth St, Sealy TX, 77474, in her name.