BRUNSWICK — Elizabeth “Buff” (Grant) McDonald, 70, died peacefully on Dec. 18 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Born on Feb. 2, 1938, the middle child of three daughters, she grew up in Cape Elizabeth.
She graduated from Cape Elizabeth High School in 1956.
In 1957, she married her high school love, Bruce McDonald.
She found her first, true avocation as a mother, bearing three children over six years. She taught by example, always having time for conversation and play.
She had strong opinions and social conscience; she was an active member of the League of Women Voters and other organizations.
She earned her degree from Norwalk Community College School of Nursing in 1975, graduating as salutatorian of her class. For the next two decades, she worked as a nurse in Connecticut.
She inherited her father’s love of sailing, piloting her first sailboat around Casco Bay when she was 14. She was a member of Sprite Island Yacht Club, Saugatuck Harbor Yacht Club and the Saugatuck River Power Squadron.
She enjoyed family time above all else. She was proud of her grandchildren, a sense she never lost even as her illness progressed.
She is survived by her husband, Bruce McDonald of Brunswick; her mother, Alice (Blackwood) Grant of Kennebunk; her two sisters, Patricia (Grant) Tifft of Durham, N.H., and Alison (Grant) Small and husband Peter of Concord, Mass.; three children, Jill McDonald and Scott Kimball of Brewer, Brian McDonald and wife Marianne of Norwalk, Conn., Alan McDonald and wife Beth of Ellicott City, Md.; grandchildren Taylor and Kaileigh Tremble of Brewer, Cory and Meredith McDonald of Norwalk, Conn., Ryan and Lauren McDonald of Ellicott City, Md., Seth Tremble and his wife Blythe of Oahu, Hawaii, and Ashley Hawkins-Kimball of Durham, N.H.; her sisters’ children, Richard Tifft and wife Beret of South Portland, Ellen (Tifft) Coghill and husband Antonio of Fredericksburg, Va., Ben Small and wife Katie and Elizabeth Small, all of Boston; many grandnieces and grandnephews; aunts and uncles; and many cousins.
Memorial services were held earlier this week.
Memorial donations may be made to Respite Care Adult Day Service, 45 Baribeau Drive, Brunswick, ME 04011 or the Bruce McDonald ‘57 Scholarship Fund, c/o Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME 04011.
McDonald