Debi Ford, beloved sister of Bronwyn ("Auntie B" to Deb's pets), passed away peacefully in her sleep as they held hands, on December 23, 2025, in Lebanon, NH.
Debi was a great friend of people and animals. She was born May 14, 1959, in Cambridge, MA, grew up in Scituate, MA, graduated from Northeastern University, and was a longtime resident of Merrimack, NH. She especially loved nature and mostly dogs, from all the ones she lived with, to using some as certified pet therapy dogs at hospice, to volunteering at animal shelters where she was hired as a dog trainer after decades spent managing various TJ Maxx stores in southern New Hampshire.
Deb approached her most serious health challenges saying that no matter what happened she was ok with it, that she had a great life, that she felt like the luckiest person in the world because she was able to do work she loved, and that she felt bad for her friends having to see her go through it.
Debi was a very strong person. She only ever wanted everyone to be happy, always went above and beyond to understand what would make someone happy, and did her best to make it happen. People who knew Deb said she's a person they never heard anyone say anything bad about, the rare kind of person that they only heard everyone say good things about.
In the future Deb's remains may be destined to be interred under a tree along with her pets at Life Forest in Hillsborough. Until joining her there, her sister (who, having a lover's quarrel with the world, thought she wouldn't outlive Deb because she didn't want to imagine life without her older sister) intends to do her best to live up to the example Deb set, and to honor her memory in a way that makes Deb proud. Meanwhile, until we meet again, we'll continue the conversation...
Deb's story isn't over as long as she's loved and remembered. As Mary Oliver wrote: "To live in this world / you must be able / to do three things: / to love what is mortal; / to hold it / against your bones knowing / your own life depends on it; / and, when the time comes to let it go, / to let it go."
In Blackwater Woods
by Mary Oliver
Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it
go,
to let it go.
