Nancy Claire Dumont's Obituary
On Monday afternoon, July 17, 2023, at 3 pm, a graveside service will be held at Hillside Cemetery in Mantua, Ohio, to honor the life of Nancy Claire Dumont and to mark her passing on October 30, 2022. All are welcome to attend.
After a quiet yet determined 30-year struggle with Multiple Sclerosis, Nancy passed gently and peacefully at the Hospice of the Western Reserve in Euclid, Ohio, with final dreams, she told us, of an eagle and her beloved cat Rumsfeld in her head and with "Rooney" and "Uncle Dave" among her last-spoken words. Nancy's sister and brother-in-law Laura and Harvey McGarry and her sister-in-law Ann Dumont were at her side as she joined hands in heaven with her father and mother Ralph Dumont and Dorothy (Barnett Dumont)Toth and her older sister and brother Dorothy Dumont Kobus and Ralph Dumont, Jr. She also embraced longtime life partner Karolyn Miller, stepfather Frank Toth, brother-in-law Scot Kobus, and nephew Harvey McGarry, Jr., along with her revered grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins (including special almost-brother Uncle David Barnett.) A host of other family members and friends were waiting there to meet her, as well - those with whom Nancy generously shared a multitude of events, memories, and her Mantua home throughout her 73 years of life. It is interesting to note that, as a lifetime resident of NE Ohio, Nancy was born and died only miles apart along the shoreline of Lake Erie, beginning in Eastlake on October 5, 1949. Early on, she grew up and lived between her two hometowns of Eastlake and Mantua, settling in Mantua for the decades of her adulthood. Nancy was a 1968 graduate of Crestwood High School in Mantua and Stautzenberger Business College in Toledo. She married twice early in life, then shared a home on Walnut Street in Mantua with her best friend Karolyn for 35 years before Karolyn's passing in 2015. For a decade prior to her MS diagnosis, Nancy was employed with Davies Can Company in Solon. For her entire life, Nancy loved animals of all kinds, but she was especially devoted for the last 20 years of her life to the many cats that she cared for, inside and outside. She often called that caretaking "her church." All of her pets were important to Nancy, but she held special love in her heart for her cats Pepper and Simba, whose ashes will be placed alongside Nancy at the burial service on Monday. In April of 2010, Nancy became a devoted member of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Mantua. After months of catechism classes, despite her wheelchair challenges, she was confirmed, baptized, and took first communion in a single, meaningful ceremony that solidified her faith walk for the remainder of her life. As part of that commitment, for years Nancy was dedicated to the task of laundering and ironing the weekly communion cloths for St. Joe's, something that she took exacting care and great pride in doing.
Nancy was a caretaker and caregiver her entire adult life, having lovingly nursed our mother through her final cancer and Karolyn through her own battle with MS. A long string of other family members and friends found relief and rescue in Nancy's care under that Walnut Street roof.
Nancy spent the last two and a half years as a resident and friendmaker at the Anna Maria nursing facility in Aurora and The Avenue at Broadview Heights, and our family is grateful to the nurses and staff at both facilities for their care in making Nancy's life more gentle.
Private, feisty, and fierce, Nancy lived quietly and kindly and with strength, determination, loyalty, and bravery, and she had a sharp wit and a keen sense of humor that will be greatly missed by her nieces and nephews - Cordelia Kobus, Richard and Mary Dumont, Tammy and Steven Nickel, Jennifer and Sam Galloway, Alan and Renee Dumont, and all of their children.
Nancy will be especially missed by her friend and fellow kitty-rescuer Sister Joyce Schreiber, whose supportive friendship and help over the years cannot be measured.
She will also be missed by her dear and close sister-friend Margaret Toth Porter and childhood friends Sharon Fathauer Ebie, Christine Fathauer Lignoul, Bob Fathauer, and their spouses, who earlier hosted an informal and loving Celebration of Life for Nancy at their home in Florida.
All are welcome to remember Nancy with us at a brief graveside service at Hillside Cemetery in Mantua to share our family's earthly goodbye to our sister, aunt, and friend.
What’s your fondest memory of Nancy?
What’s a lesson you learned from Nancy?
Share a story where Nancy's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Nancy you’ll never forget.
How did Nancy make you smile?