SACO – Barbara Berman Russakoff, former resident of Skowhegan, died quietly on Aug. 12, at Seal Rock Nursing Home in Saco, after many years of suffering with Alzheimer’s disease.

The oldest child of Eva and Myer Berman, Barbara grew up in Lewiston, graduated from Lewiston High School and briefly attended Bates College. In fact, she once wrote a humorous note to the alumni newsletter saying that the only reason she had attended Bates was that “My mother made me do it.” (Although she was always a great reader, she certainly did not like doing assigned homework.)

She married Philip Russakoff and moved to Skowhegan. Their marriage later ended in divorce. In 2001, with her health clearly failing, her daughter and son-in-law moved her to Kennebunk so that she could be close to them. With the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, she went into assisted living and eventually into nursing home care.

Looking back to the years when she was vibrant, her family recalls her skills at competitive bridge and word games, her elegant cooking, her love of dogs, her interest in politics, civil rights and fairness.

She was most of all the quintessential grandmother, taking her granddaughter to fall in love with the rhythms of the beach as she had taken her daughter when she was young.

She would play endless board games, bake cookies, cut out paper dolls and teach ten-year-olds to play poker, letting them drink lots of root beer so they could burp creatively. “Bubba,” as her granddaughter happily named her, was most at home in her warm brown kitchen, her old schoolhouse clock ticking on a wall filled with family antiques, surrounded by people she loved.

She leaves the people dearest to her in her lifetime, her daughter, Marcia and son-in-law, Bob Ellis; her granddaughter, Libby; her brother, Jack Berman and his wife, Marcia; and several longtime friends.

Her sister, June Berman Goldstein predeceased her.