Lee, NH:  “Someone is dead,” Anne Sexton wrote. “Even the trees know it.”   Josephine Lowell MacKinnon has passed.     

Known to her children as Mom, to some of her grandchildren as Grammie Jo, to her countless nieces and nephews as Aunt Jo, to her friends as Josie and to some of her grandchildren, the whanau community and to the wide wide world as Nana, she was born Josephine Hill Lowell to Perry and Gladys Lowell <nee Bonnie Winona Keefe> on August 24, 1924.  She was the fourth child of six. Her maternal grandmother, Lizzie Keefe, was an immigrant from County Kerry, Ireland. Her paternal Lowell and Harriman ancestors, came to the New World in 1630 and 1634 respectively.  Approximately 150 years later, the Harriman progeny were a founding family of the Town of Bucksport, ME where she was born and nurtured into adulthood.

Two notable ancestors were Asa Harriman, a lieutenant in the Continental Army of the American Revolution and a veteran of Rogers Rangers.  And Walter Harriman of NH who was a Brigadier General in the Union Army of the Civil War, a noted orator and Governor of New Hampshire. Josie knew that there were likely many more than two notable women in her lineage, but that women were customarily ignored by history.  

Josie’s early life reflected the ease of the era of the roaring twenties, but she was only five when the stock market crash of 1929 ushered in the Great Depression. There were nights in those Depression years, when she and her siblings went to bed hungry.  Her older brother, Leland, moved to a local dairy farm where he worked to help provide food for the family along with precious dimes and nickels for his sister, Josie, to attend the local movie shows. In 1939 those shows included “Gone with Wind” --her absolute favorite movie of all time.  

In high school, Josie played basketball, acted in school plays, loved English and wanted to become a movie actress. Instead, war shaped her young life. The bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 changed the life path of most of her generation--the Greatest Generation. Graduation from Bucksport High School in 1942 ended her formal education. 

While still a teenager, she met a handsome army soldier stationed nearby.  She fell in love with Daniel Finley MacKinnon, son of a Gaelic speaking highland immigrant. She loved him her entire life.  In 1943, they eloped and were married under the threat of separation by war.  Josie followed him down the east coast from fort to fort until he was shipped to the front lines in Europe. Josie worked in the war effort, serving enlisted men while renting a bedroom in a private home near the base, as wives could not live on base.

Her husband, two brothers and new brother-in-law were all fighting in the war, two in the Pacific and two in Europe. Her husband, Daniel, served as a heavy artillery sergeant, and survived the terrible Battle of the Bulge. She wrote faithfully to him every day--from the first day they were separated by war until his return home in the spring of 1945. Until the end, she could recite without hesitation his full military ID number.  

Josephine's favorite charity was the Paralyzed Veterans  of America <www.pav.org> whose sacrifice she understood and to whom she donated every year of her life. 

In 1944, weeks before her Daniel went overseas in the fall of 1944, their first child was welcomed into the world. While Dan fought in Europe, she and baby John went to NH to live with her mother-in-law. Upon Dan's return, they would bring six more, largely untamable, highland offspring into the world. 

Josephine delighted in all of her children and worked very hard to raise them. She was a woman who multi-tasked long before the word was invented: she sewed their clothes, grew and canned vegetables, darned socks, knit mittens and hats, made cookies and homemade bread (six loaves at a time). She made them a good breakfast every single morning and picked them up after school every single day. Their home in the Kilkenny Mountains was seven miles from the last bus stop. She took them swimming in summer, warmed them with hot cocoa after snowball fights in winter. and put up with their endless pranks in all seasons.  Reading to her children was a great joy--a chapter each night at bedtime, a tradition she and her children continued with the next generation.  

Her husband or children were always bringing someone home for lunch or dinner, or for the weekend. She fed them all graciously, and gave them shelter, teaching hospitality by example. She also taught sewing, knitting, reading, gardening and cooking by the same method. She loved music, dance, the theater, and art. She loved baseball if the Red Sox were at bat or fielding, and football if the Patriots were playing. She participated in her children's lives until the end....attending their celebrations, holding a sign at the polls for one running for public office, caring for grandchildren after school, taking care of dogs and cats, houses and plants, bringing homemade rolls to Thanksgiving dinner, making berry jam and  applesauce.

Josie was not proud in a loud way, but was quietly proud of her children, that her sons could cook and change diapers as well as steer large ships into small ports, that her daughters took on leadership roles in their communities, that all of her children went to college, that her grandchildren were perfect. 

In later life, Josie served those in need by working as an aide and then a homemaker with Squamscott Visiting Nurses. When she retired at age 70, her daughter Allie bought her a house with gardens and a meadow where she could grow vegetables and flowers.  It was her first house. Years later, Allie moved in with her when medical needs arose.  Josie trusted Allie with every decision in her medically complicated later life.

After her retirement and between marathon “take no prisoners” scrabble games Josie traveled several times to New Zealand touring both the North and South Island with her son, spending time in Wellington with a granddaughter.  Her travels also took her to Michigan and the fiber farm run by her son and his family, and to Louisiana to visit another son for Thanksgiving some years and Mardi gras for others.  A daughter coaxed her to Mexico City for Christmas one year; there they were lovingly hosted by the Palau family, who took them to the pyramids at Teotihuacan, to the 16th century cathedral in Mexico City, to Chapultepec Park. She flew to California to attend the wedding of a grandniece and to Montana to visit an old friend.

She loved tools and gadgets, and embraced the computer age as soon as she learned about the internet. She used an iPad as well as a laptop.  These inventions kept Nana connected to her far flung whanau.

An unfortunate car accident at age 80 had prompted a need for dialysis, which she endured without complaint for the last 5 1/2 years of her life. In that experience, she received care from some of the best people imaginable.  Her dialysis doctors and team of nurses and technicians treated her like cherished family. Her primary care physician was an awesome advocate and a great doctor.  In the last months, the amazing care givers at Langdon Place of Dover all fell in love with her, and cried with her daughters when she passed into the  next reality on May 13, 2014.  The MacKinnon clan is most grateful to the many incredible people who took care of Josie with genuine love and sweet tenderness.

Josephine remains in the hearts of all who knew and loved her, most especially her children, who never ever went hungry:  Captain John <Sylvia>  MacKinnon of Katikati, New Zealand,  Captain Daniel Finley <Diane> MacKinnon of Independence, LA, Bonnie Winona MacKinnon of Nottingham, NH,  Alice MacKinnon of Lee, NH, Ann MacKinnon of Farmington, NH, Mary MacKinnon of Sebago, ME, William <Sherry> MacKinnon of Curtis,  MI.  And her eleven precious grandchildren:  Ngaere MacKinnon of New Zealand, Jessika MacKinnon of New Zealand, Ian MacKinnon  of LA, Daniel Finley MacKinnon of LA, Jessica-Kate Gilsdorf of NH, Elizabeth MacKinnon of ME, Hilda MacKinnon of  CA, Krister <Melissa Ruby> Rollins of ME, Lila MacKinnon, Samuel Finley MacKinnon, and Duncan MacKinnon, all of MI.  And her one wonderful great grandchild: Mikaela Fitzpatrick of Paekakariki, New Zealand. Her kid sister, Jane Lowell Hopkins of Bucksport, ME. Friends who are also family:  Gunnel Norlund-White, Sharon Lehman and Bill Gillis, Annie Martin, Roger Goldenberg, Mary Oleson  Trygstad, Teresa Palau, Heidi Mireille Rosales, and of course, her dear Patrick Pickford who took her out to breakfast often, and brought  her flowers. Also her dog Nellie and Harry boy, her kitty. Her many nieces and nephews, generations of friends and adopted family.  All the flowers in her meadow, the song birds in spring and the humming birds of summer.

Josephine was a lifelong member of the Felicity Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. She also belonged to the Margery Sullivan Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

Nature was her church.  Flowers were her passion.   

She supported the causes of equality for women and higher education for girls. She longed for a female President. She never failed to vote in every election. She believed in public education. She believed that women should have a place at the public policy table. She was strong and tolerant and never judgmental. She was good and gracious, friendly and courageous. She lived her life by the Golden Rule. She practiced daily her belief that the only thing in life that really matters is what we do for each other. "Be kind," our mother would say," just be kind."

Although we have lost the comfort of Nana’s presence, she remains the heart of our family and will be remembered for her powerful love of life, for her magical way with plants, for her stunning flower gardens, for her heavenly annadama bread, for Thanksgiving turkey and molasses cookies, for her caring, compassionate, loving nature. Recipients of her hand knit mittens and socks will cherish their most recent pair.  

Mostly though, Nana will be remembered for her kindness, for her sparkling blue eyes and her beautiful, enduring smile which was as wide as the world, a smile that never waivered and which warmed every spirit in its radius.

Upon hearing of her death, her first granddaughter, to whom she was very close, wrote from Paekakariki, New Zealand:   “I am sure she is going to a place of beautiful flowers. It is gently raining here, always auspicious in these times and when a notable figure dies, New Zealanders often turn to an old Maori saying, "A mighty totara has fallen," referring to one of the giant trees found in New  Zealand forests. And even though Nana was small in physical stature, she was one of my giant trees. I will miss her.” 

The MacKinnon Clan will hold private family burial services for their mother and grandmother, Josephine, at a time to be determined.  

ALL friends and family are warmly invited to join her children and grandchildren in joyful Celebration of the Life of Josephine Lowell MacKinnon, to be held with music, food and laughter, at beautiful Bedrock Gardens<www.bedrockgardens.org> on High Road, Lee, NH.   Come at 2 pm on Saturday, August 9th.  Rain or shine:  bring your own lawn chair and umbrella. And bring your stories.