1948 – 2016

RUMFORD —  She sleeps!

The discovery and treatment of stage four brain cancer never diminished Faith’s ability to find joy in each day. Her personality remained vibrant and spirit hopeful, even as the disease launched its final assault upon her physical existence. Cancer took her life, but not her accomplishments and abiding trust in God, her merciful and just creator, redeemer and friend.

Faith Macomber Gilson was born on Feb. 6, 1948, the firstborn of Massachusetts residents Howard Gilson II and Bernice (Bee) Macomber. Her father was a paper products salesman and her mother was a pediatric nurse.

Following her 1966 graduation from Minnechaug Regional High School, Faith left Wilbraham, Mass., to attend Johnson State College in Vermont. Two years later, she married classmate John Boswell, who supported his bride as a resident ranch hand in Guildhall, Vt. They had three children, Catherine, Sarah and Joshua that raised in Gorham, N.H.

Shortly after daughter Sarah started her senior year of high school, she was tragically killed in an automobile accident. Faith was recovering from a cancer precipitated facial reconstruction when she was required to identify the far more disfigured body of her daughter. The profoundness of her despair defied consoling. She became a workaholic and, to her regret, family relationships shattered.

Approaching mid-life, her overtaxed body rebelled at the excessive physical demands of long hours at work and participating in the pastimes of darts, skiing, golfing and sailing. A decade later, she began monthly chemotherapy to minimize the advancing disabilities of arthritis and fibromyalgia.

In 1999, she was living in Rangeley, traveling 2½ to and from her full-time position at JC Penney in North Conway, N.H., while concurrently employed in on-call positions as a home health aide in Rangeley and as a nurses aide and medication-technician at a nursing home in Rumford. It was at Rumford Community Nursing Home that Faith met administrative assistant George Blanchard. Soul mates, they married in Rangeley on May 5, 2001, believing that together they would eventually repair the multitude of broken family relationships resulting from the dissolution of their prior marriages. Of all earthly endeavors, joint achievements and serendipity, they were most satisfied by the blessings of being husband and wife, mother and father, nanny and grandpa.

Faith’s husband, George, will continue residing in the home they purchased two months after their marriage, warmly embraced by his remembrance of their life together and the physical reminders of her passion for interior decorating and four season landscaping. Upon her death, his final words for her were a paraphrase from “Pretty Woman,” their favorite date movie. “She sleeps!”

Following a month at the Hospice House in Auburn, comforted by the presence of family, friends and loving caregivers, she achieved her goal of returning to the sanctuary of home for her final days.

She is survived by brother, Howard Gilson III and his wife, Bernadette Bargnes, and their children, Howard IV and Alexandra, of Bethesda, Md.; brother, David Gilson and wife, Cathy Sebastion, and David’s son, William, of Groton, Mass.; first husband, John Boswell of Dummer, N.H.; daughter, Catherine Moon and grandchildren, Robert and Michael, of Wareham, Mass.; son, Joshua Boswell, stationed at Fort Hood, Killeen, Texas, and grandchildren, Conner and Abby. Also surviving are husband, George Blanchard, and his three children, Julia and husband, Tony Umbro, residents of Limington, with their young daughters, Lucy and Molly, and Jon and Joseph Blanchard of Mexico.

Faith was predeceased by her parents; and her daughter, Sarah Boswell.

On being told her condition was terminal, Faith selected two songs to mark her passing. “You Raised Me Up,” to acknowledge her parents’, family and friend’s enduring support, and “Let There Be Peace On Earth,” as her affirmation of God’s desire for all souls.

Burial will be beside her daughter, Sarah, in the Gilson family plot within Groton Cemetery, Groton, Mass.

Friends and relatives are invited to sign the online guest book and share memories with the family at www.meaderandson.com.