Minerva Evelyn Townsend Chalaby departed her earthly body on Oct. 14, 2018 while attending worship at Vienna Baptist Church. The daughter of Arthur and Laura Webber Townsend, Minerva was born in a cozy home on the Pleasant Cove Road in the woods of Boothbay, Maine the second of four children. She spent her entire childhood there being raised with her three siblings.

Minerva attended Boothbay schools, graduating as salutatorian of her high school class in 1958. After high school she spent her early adult years in Atlanta, Georgia and Hartford, Connecticut, the latter of which being where she met in person her childhood pen pal of whom she later married and started a family with in Plainville, Connecticut before returning to Boothbay in 1972.

After raising her family in Boothbay, and a few transitional years in Augusta, Maine and Wayne, Maine, she spent her final years joyfully inhabiting her own small mountain cabin in Vienna, Maine, built by her and her family and friends, surrounded by the natural world she loved so much.

During the course of her life, she held various secretarial positions and other miscellaneous jobs. She had a passion to write and used that passion to write her hand written letters she sent to her family and friends all over the country at all times of the year. Her combination of intelligence, shyness (“I wasn’t shy, I just didn’t want to do it!”) and her vegetarian convictions set her apart, but her friends loved her for her uniqueness, sense of humor and thoughtfulness.

A talented violinist, she also loved singing in groups and at church. She was for many years a member of the Boothbay Baptist Church. Firm in her faith in Jesus, strong in moral character, independent in her values, stubborn as a rock in a concrete foundation, she was who she was, and wasn’t about to be changed. All who knew her loved her for that quality.

Minerva was a proud and devoted mother of two sons, and caretaker of a succession of much-loved cats. She was predeceased by her parents and her younger son, Nathan Chalaby, who died in 2015.

Minerva is survived by her devoted son, Daniel Chalaby of Scarborough, and his father, Sarkis Chalaby of Damariscotta; one brother, Maynard Townsend and his wife Sandra; two sisters, Linda Townsend and her partner Ned Rollins and Esther Hardwick and her husband Wayne, and their extended families. She spoke fondly of her cousins and cherished close friends Larry Siegler and Marie Kohtala, enjoyed her many other friends, and wryly tolerated her housemate mouse, “Mousie.”

Minerva’s body was laid to rest at the new cemetery on Tower Road in Vienna, Maine overlooking the mountain she lived on. A small graveside service was performed on Friday, Oct. 19 and a small memorial service for her church family at Vienna Baptist Church on Sunda,y Oct. 28. Another memorial service for family and friends is planned for the summer of 2019 in the Lincoln County area.

Minerva, remaining true to her ways of not allowing others to spend money on her, requested no funeral, flowers, or charitable donations be made in her name.