With utter sadness I am writing about my Mom’s passing the morning of Saturday April 4th 2026. Though Mom suffered with dementia for over 10 years she was a fighter and fought through many health battles after Dad passed (yes, I never wrote about his passing on March 20th 2017. One day I will). She broke her wrist, collarbone, hip, had some serious head injuries, and always bounced back. And though she had dementia her demeanor was always so sunny and sweet and she always remembered who her close family were. Her care required a great deal of work but it was never a burden. And we were so fortunate to have Mom on Medicaid and in the NHTD program. A&T Healthcare and Unlimited did such an amazing job. The primary aides, Josseline, Jennifer and Maria, loved Mom very much and she loved them. Though she had the dementia she was able to live the rest of her life after Dad’s passing in comfort and safety in her own home, cared for by amazing people and in amazing programs provided by the government (and should be available for all persons in this country, not just those on Medicaid).

Here is the link for the obituary on the Purta Funeral Home website. It is beautifully written by my brother Brian: https://purtafuneralhome.com/tribute/details/1324/Grace-Pawelski/obituary.html#tribute-start

Our good friend Donald W. wrote an amazing piece about my Dad in the style of Dr. Seuss years ago (see: https://muckville.com/2013/10/08/he-sniffs-his-hat/ ). Donald wrote a follow-up about my Mom. To explain … Baby Face refers to the expression you see of her in her most favorite picture (the one she told every visitor about and proudly showed at home) of baseball legend Babe Ruth holding her as a baby.

Mom never lost that baby face. Below Donald’s Dr. Seuss piece are a few pics and some special clips of home movies of her, as a baby and at her wedding in 1965. Few people of my age and generation have such content. Our family was so blessed. Thank you Donald. I can’t help but cry when reading this.

Baby Faced Grace

I’ve regaled you with stories of that Old Jack Who Sniffs Hats. His quirks and bad jokes, his calls to the waitress for water while grabbing his throat but there’s one story left that’s worthy of note.

Ol Jack had a wife who was kind of a snack her name was Baby Faced Grace and she kept him on track.

Well they were a pair that Ol Jack & Grace they went together like leather & lace.

Sometimes Ol Jack would get nervous “This may be the year the Mud Grunions won’t succeed maybe locusts or floods or even Hellaflumpamungus stampedes?!?” Hellaflumpamungus Stampedes?!? Laughed Baby Face Grace, “Yer a quack! You got me, Jenny, Brian, and Chris, and we all have yer back. Hellaflumpamungus Stampedes no more talking that smack. Go fire up that John Deere and head towards the Draper Track. Together we’ll paint this muck green with mud grunions so big some might think it’s obscene.”

Together every day at work or at home for decades together and never alone. Baby Face and Ol Jack they were an inseparable pair.Until that day that Ol Jack no longer sniffed the band of his hat in that barn office chair. For Baby Face Grace the world gone a-wack she felt to alone in Muckville without her Ol Jack. 

She drifted off in her mind to a happier day where her and Jack would plan dinner as the kids ran out to play. Enough was enough for Baby Faced Grace she was tired and weary without Jack in this place besides she had done the things she needed to do she gave her love to Chris, Eve, Brian, Sarah and Jenny that seems like a lot but that’s not so many there were even more than that and it sounds like I’m lying there were exactly three more Caleb, Jonah and Ryan. Baby Faced Grace had a knack for this love thing that’s just a fact and now’s she’s together forever with the love of her life the legendary man they called Ol Jack that Sniffs Hats.