Amelia Anne Waible

Amelia Anne (Hersom) Waible, loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend passed away suddenly, Friday, August 26, 2022. Born January 28, 1936, in Mars Hill, Maine to Lawrence Walter Hersom of Mars Hill, Maine, and Ruth Mae (Ryder) Hersom of South Orrington, Maine. Raised in Winthrop, Maine, she graduated from Winthrop High School in 1954. A member of the Glee club, her senior class trip was to New York City, a place she would eventually attend school and live. “Mimi” attended the University of Maine for 2 years, then transferred to Columbia University School of Nursing at the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, graduating in 1959.

Mimi was a traveling soul. She traveled across the country with her sister in her VW bug with a tent, she backpacked Europe on five dollars a day, enjoyed the festivities at Times Square on New Year’s Eve, and built friendships that would last a lifetime.

She worked as head Nurse in pediatrics at Grace (now Yale) hospital in New Haven for several years after graduation until transferring to Mass General Hospital, as Head Nurse of pediatrics.

An avid skier, it was in this she met the love of her life, David Allen Waible (June 27, 1935 - December 20th, 2021). She often told the comical tale of her first date with Dave, when he dropped the steak off the grill into the dirt, brushed it off and put it quickly back on the grill, and served it to her. They shared a once in a lifetime love, Mimi and Dave were married on February 11, 1967, in Winthrop, Maine. Together she flourished as a skier, hiker, traveler, Mother, businesswoman, collector, and friend. Her Hobbies included the Red Sox, Ham (Amateur) Radio, folk art painting, yard sales, traveling, and antiquing. It was in the latter she found her joy of collecting Open Salts. Known affectionately in some circles as “Yard Sale Annie” she would take trips up route 1 in Maine to stop at all the antique stores and yard sales looking for the deals that would define her collections. A member, and Officer in the New England Society of Open Salt Collectors, she helped them push forward and gain members for the club until her retirement. She was Vice President for a time at Peter Paul Office Equipment, Dave’s office equipment company, where they became a team in the business winning many awards through the likes of Olivetti and Smith Corona typewriter companies, accruing trips around the world.

Where she excelled most was as a mother. Erich and Gretchen were her everything. Den mother to pack 61 cub scouts with her son, Erich, and a Leader with Brownies and Girl Scouts with her daughter, Gretchen, she loved her children very much. This love only grew upon the arrival of her three loving grandchildren Lillian (Lily), Shannon, and Jake, children of her daughter Gretchen and husband Mark. Holidays, visits, and grandparenting enveloped her and Dave’s life over the last 20 years. No one was more proud than “Bema” as her grandchildren affectionately called her. Her iPad was full of pictures of her children, grandchildren, friends, and family. These were her true treasures.

A member of the Ester Circle, at the Sudbury United Methodist Church, she met many friends and eventual family drinking coffee at Hawes Hall after Sunday services. Talking on the phone, playing bridge, going out to lunch or at Longfellow health club where she loved to work out in the pool, she cherished her time with everyone she met in her life, using email, phone, social media, and handwritten letters to keep up with everyone she has met and touched throughout her life. Her favorite saying was “Don’t quit before you start”. A charitable person, to say the least, she loved helping people. In her stay-at-home mom years, she was a Meals on Wheels volunteer and drove for the organization FISH. Later, she wrote Christmas cards for wounded veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C, and always donated to charities benefiting Children, Veterans, Cancer, Diabetes, and animals.

Mimi is survived by her daughter Gretchen Gainer and her husband Mark Gainer Jr. Cherished grandchildren Lillian “Lily”, Shannon and Jake Gainer of Sudbury, MA. Son Erich Waible and his partner Stephanie Gould of Southbridge, MA. Sisters Ruth “Beth” (Hersom) Schurman of Glen, NH, Lydia (Hersom) Devault and her husband Richard of Bristol, RI, Brother Michael Hersom of Winthrop, ME, sister-in-law Nancy (Symes) Hersom, of New Mexico, and many loving, nephews, nieces, grandnephews, grandnieces, friends, and acquaintances. Mimi was preceded in death by her Husband David, brother Walter Hersom of Manchester, VT, and brother-in-law Paul Schurman of Glen, NH.

Services for Amelia will be held Saturday, September 10, 2022 11:00am at the Sudbury United Methodist Church, 251 Old Sudbury Road, Sudbury, MA 01776. Interment will be held privately.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Meals on Wheels Sudbury, Masachusetts.

The loss is immeasurable but so is the love left behind.