POLAND – Dorothy Carolyn Pulsifer Goss, 99, of Poland passed away Dec. 3, at her home, and is now at rest in her eternal home with the Lord.

She was born in Poland on Nov. 15, 1908, the daughter of Charles and Rose Pulsifer. She grew up on Bailey Hill in Poland and attended Poland Community Church as a child. She graduated from Mechanic Falls High School in 1927. She attended and graduated from Farmington Normal School.

On June 28, 1930, she married Harold James Goss, whom she had met when she was 11 years old. In 1929 and 1930, she was a schoolteacher in Richmond and Hackett’s Mills prior to her marriage. She was a full-time homemaker, caring for and encouraging her husband and family.

She partnered with her husband in establishing a lumber and then coal business. Later they extended their business into Goss Hardware Inc., eventually developing Depot Square in 1952 in Mechanic Falls. They operated this business for more than 40 years.

She raised and nurtured eight children. In 2003, she received the Boston Post Cane award for being the oldest citizen born and raised in Poland. She had many interests, but most of all she cherished her husband, children, her extended family and friends.

On November 16, she was presented with a certificate signifying her 85 years of membership to the Poland Excelsior Grange. For more than 80 years, she was a member of Pleasant Street Baptist Church and served as a Sunday school teacher, deaconess and participant in many ministries of the church. She and her husband served with Amateur Radio Missionary Service, and as Wycliffe Associates with Wycliffe Bible Translators. During the 1950s and 1960s she and her husband provided their Isle of Somewhere in Poland to area churches to use as a Christian camp. She will be remembered to her family and friends as a kind, caring, gentle and compassionate woman who treasured her relationship with Christ.

She is survived by her five daughters, Evangelyn and husband, William Jackson, of Sinton, Texas, Ellen Goss of Arlington, Va., Jane and husband, James Whitesell, of Palm Coast, Fla., Faith and husband, Michael Pock, of South Portland and Grace and husband, John Cartwright, of Ashburn, Va.; her son, Harold Jr. and wife, Mary Ellen, of Poland; a son-in-law, John Averell of Arlington, Mass.; 21 grandchildren; 39 great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her husband; two daughters, Winona Haslett and Ruth Averell; and two brothers, Donald and Henry Pulsifer.