Thursday, March 22, 2012

Episcopal bishop's wife Smith dies at 56


From Southwest Florida-

Mary Ellen Smith knew the end was near. Characteristically, she worried more about her family than herself, and she didn't want them to worry about her after she was gone.

"I am peaceful because I get to go on a great adventure," she told her daughter, Ashton Williston.

Tuesday, after a long illness, the 56-year-old wife of the Rt. Rev. Dabney Smith, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida, died at their home in Ellenton.

In a statement issued by the diocese, which spans from Brooksville to Marco Island with 76 congregations, the bishop shared some of his memories of his partner of 36 years and mother of their three grown children.

She embraced her role as the spouse of a seminarian, then a priest and finally a bishop, always willing to relocate and resettle their family without resentment. From childhood, she took care of her mother, Dorothy, who suffered from brittle diabetes, until the elderly woman's death at age 86. And when Smith's mother could no longer live alone, Mary Ellen took care of both women in their home for a year.

More here-

http://www2.tbo.com/news/faith/2012/mar/22/memeto2-episcopal-bishops-wife-smith-dies-at-56-ar-383693/

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