Margaret Josephine Furigay

Mrs. Margaret Josephine “Peggy” (Reardon) Furigay was born in Weymouth, MA on August 26, 1944, and died on April 22, 2020, at the age of 75. She is survived by three children, eight grandchildren, and two sisters. Peggy grew up in Braintree, MA, an honors student, promising artist, and lover of music and dance. She graduated from Braintree High School in 1962, and in 1965, as a nursing student at Quincy City hospital, met Rudy Furigay, a doctor who had recently emigrated from the Philippines and who would become her husband and the father to her three children. The family moved for work to New York City and Syracuse, and finally settled in Windber, PA, where Peg raised her children. As the family grew and the kids became more independent, Peg completed a degree in psychology with Cum Laude honors from the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, and joined in local theater productions. During her life she enjoyed cooking, fashion and design, singing and dancing in the kitchen, arts and crafts, science publications and classical music, any game with words, and loved being a grandmother. Peg modeled curiosity and wonder, and saw the world through a whimsical, artistic eye; she was the proverbial poet who would stop and smell the roses. She seemed to know personally the birds that would come to her many feeders, and was an incontrovertible authority on backyard wildlife in Windber, and then, in later years, in Ashville, NC where she lived part time with her husband, son, and daughter-in-law. Peg enjoyed traveling, particularly to visit family who dropped anchor in distant cities, but was just as often delighted to be transported by a Beethoven symphony or the hue of autumn leaves in the slant of evening sunlight. She encouraged and celebrated creativity of all kinds, and embodied the idea that people can touch one another with beauty.  A private person in many ways, Peg had an extraordinary capacity for empathy and connection – with family, friends, and strangers alike. She could draw out the shy, the hesitant, the vulnerable; she was an expert listener and held people’s stories in a place of comfort and quiet validation. Present, open, generous, and nurturing, her brightest light often shone to illuminate the shadow of others’ struggles. She was a stalwart champion for the underdog. When she passed away, Peg was with her family and surrounded by love as her spirit left her body for the next adventure. Private visitation and Funeral mass will be held for her family at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, Windber. Arrangements entrusted to Meek & Dalla Valle Funeral Home, Windber. The family suggests that memorial contributions be made to Windber Hospice 600 Somerset Ave. Windber, PA 15963.

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