Donna Muir
1947 - 2022
Donna Muir
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A passionate glimmer in her eye guided her every step until her last day on earth, January 17, 2022.

Donna E. L. Muir, of Bayside N.B. was born in Fredericton, N.B. on May 19, 1947 to Eileen and Donald Jeffrey. She was a middle child, but that never stopped her from getting noticed and standing up for what she believed in. She lived a life well-lived and loved.

Donna was a natural born leader. When playing school as a child with her friends and siblings, Donna was always the teacher. It was good training as she later went on to Teachers College in Fredericton. Her teaching career began in Nackawic and then moved to St. Stephen upon her marriage. In addition to teaching in the public school system, Donna also spent many years as a dedicated instructor at NBCC St. Andrews. Her passion for learning shone through and she enjoyed instilling that passion in her students, children and grandchildren. She believed that learning was a lifelong endeavour and lived this everyday. Even in retirement, she continued this passion as a tutor, supporting each NBCC St Andrews student she worked with to realize their abilities and succeed academically. She truly had a gift for teaching.

In her early twenties, Donna joined her friend on a weekend trip to St. Andrews where she met her future husband, Sandy. They didn’t date long – Sandy knew a good person when he saw one and, after a whirlwind romance, he asked her to marry him in 1970. During their 51 years of marriage, they were blessed with four children.

Family was her everything and Donna had a fondness for bringing people together around the kitchen table. It’s where we’d share laughs – her laugh the loudest - and where she gave the best advice and nurturing after any difficult turn in life. Years later, it’s where she’d also spend time with her grandchildren whom she loved dearly. Her grandchildren remember fondly the beach cookouts she organized, visits to the farm, raspberry picking, and day adventures to explore the region – she found a way to make each of them feel special and very much loved. Marmie, as she was so affectionately known to her grandkids, took great pride in creating annual scrapbooks of cherished memories for each birthday they had and knitting them socks, mittens and scarfs.

Donna was a rare find. She was a logical thinker, but also creative and expressive. She had so many talents, whether painting a seaside scene, stitching together quilts, or writing poems and stories, it all came easy to her. But she was modest, taking great pride in sharing all her talents as gifts with everyone who met her. She loved to sing, and we could often hear her humming or singing as she went about her day. If you didn’t know she was in church, you soon would when her beautiful soprano voice rang throughout the building.

Donna had a fiery tenacity to get things done and help out wherever she was needed. She was a community leader and her dedication to so many causes was evident in her countless hours of volunteer work – much of it with local government land and water use, as well as with the Charlotte County Archives. Even while farming, she found time to volunteer with the Milk Marketing Board and later in the trucking company with Sandy, she volunteered with not-for-profit organizations that aimed to make the transportation industry better.

She had a thirst for knowledge and was self-taught on so many things. There didn’t seem to be anything she couldn’t learn or fix. "What about if I try this?" we’d often hear her say anytime something didn’t work the way it should and if Donna didn’t know how to do something, she proceeded with her tenacious spirit to teach herself until she did. Donna’s thirst for knowledge also stretched into genealogy. She spent many a day exploring the times of long ago while she researched, recorded, and brought to life our family history in story.

Donna faced her illness with dignity and grace. She fought hard. So very hard. Harder and longer than the doctors ever expected her to but that just speaks to her strength and her fierce, determined spirit. Donna was a bright light and while that light may be faded, it will live on in each and everyone that loved her.

She is survived by her husband Sandy, her four children, Jeff of Bayside, Jennifer (Dave) of Riverview, John of Edmonton and Jaclyn of St. Andrews; her seven grandchildren, Jade, Ben, Ethan, Sophie, Evan, Lauren and Graeme, along with two great grandchildren Hallie and Ava; her sister Evelyn and her husband, Eric, of Moncton, her brother Ed and his partner Christine of Fredericton, her nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, and her best friend of 70 years, Dianne.

On behalf of Donna, the family thanks her dedicated and compassionate medical care providers: Dr. Ginn, Dr. Cameron, Dr. Rivera and Dr. Chase, as well as the nurses in the oncology department at Saint John Regional Hospital and the nurses at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital.

Due to the pandemic, there will be no visitation or public funeral service. Interment will take place at the Bayside Rural Cemetery, across from the farm where she and Sandy raised their family. A celebration of life will be held at a later date.

Donations can be made to the Charlotte County Cancer Society, Shriners Hospital for Children, or the Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick.

Donna Muir