Frances "Teddie" Maphet

Frances Ellen Maphet ("Teddie") passed away peacefully on July 23, 2022, at home in Fort Collins, Colorado. She was 93 years old.

Teddie was born in Jersey City, N.J. on March 2, 1929, the fourth and youngest daughter of James and Mary Raftery. She is survived by her son Gordon Maphet (Kathleen Garrett), daughters Gloria Maphet Grady, Mary Ruotolo (Angelo), Casey Mienko (Edward), and Sheila Watts (Edward), as well as grandchildren Ian Maphet, Susan Schwab, Peter Schwab, Caroline Grady, Patricia Grady-Dominguez, Joseph Ruotolo, Claire Ruotolo, Julie Scheinthal, Michael Mienko, Annie Bauer and Phineas Maphet and great grandchildren Jesse, Liam, James and Luna. She is also survived by several loving nieces and nephews. Teddie was predeceased by her parents, her husband Charles Maphet, her daughter Christine Schwab and her sisters Maureen Feehan, Alice Fulton, and Josetta Knopf.

Teddie graduated from St. Aloysius Academy in Jersey City and went on to take writing and accounting classes at Jersey City State College. She worked as a credit analyst for Hartz Mountain Industries in New Jersey before retiring in 1994.

Teddie loved to travel the world, a passion she perhaps developed as a toddler when she joined her mother and sisters in Ireland for a year or so. Eventually, she visited all of the continents with the exception of Antarctica. She traveled to Havana, Cuba as a teenager before raising her six children, and then made up for lost time with her first trip to Europe with her sisters when the kids were grown. She made lifelong friends with fellow globetrotters she knew from Amsterdam to Australia. She preferred cruising, and among her more memorable adventures was a trip down the Amazon River shortly after her 80th birthday. During that trip, she hiked in the jungle, saw piranha, monkeys, and anaconda, and gamely ate roasted grubs and other local delicacies. She was sidelined by a pancreatic tumor shortly after that trip, but once she beat the odds, she sent a photo of herself climbing boulders in the Utah canyons to the pessimistic gastroenterologist who doubted her will to live. Over the next decade, she continued her travels, visiting the Christmas markets in eastern Europe, sailing up the Rhine River, and traveling to Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore.

Teddie loved to be entertained. Before she retired, she organized semi-annual charter trips with her coworkers to see Broadway productions. Later, she volunteered as an usher, greeting and seating audience members at various performing arts venues in her adopted city of Charlotte, N.C. She also helped raise funds for the Philharmonic Guild and seldom missed a performance. She supported community theater wherever she lived. She adored quirky movies and fictional characters. Steven Van Zandt as Frank Tagliano, a mob guy in witness protection in Lillehammer, Norway, was among her favorites. (It's heartbreaking that she never found out what Saul Goodman was up to during his exile at the Cinnabon in Nebraska.)

Teddie valued the written word. She served as a Literacy Volunteer in the 1980s and early 1990s, tutoring adult students in Basic Literacy and English for Speakers of Other Languages. She was a talented writer, garnering a few accolades for her short stories in statewide competitions sponsored by the Bayonne Writers Group. She never failed to read the New York Times cover to cover on Sundays, but she especially loved reading mysteries, biographies, and gossipy stories about the British Royalty. She particularly enjoyed reading obituaries - we hope she would have admired this one.

Teddie touched everyone who ever knew her. She was charming, outgoing, intelligent, warm, and often quite funny. She enjoyed mildly dirty jokes. A favorite pastime was concocting salacious conversations among the subjects of great artworks, particularly those in Victorian dress. She often amused herself by putting words in the mouths of dogs going by on leashes and cats sitting in windows.

Teddie was wise. Her life spanned much of two centuries, and she held strong opinions about the state of the world. She was born a few months before the stock market crashed in 1929, was a child in the Great Depression, a teenager during WWII, and a 1950s housewife. She witnessed the construction of the Twin Towers during her commute to work in the 1970s and felt bitter pain when they were destroyed on 9/11. She embraced technology and developed considerable skills with her computer and cellphones, even mastering the art of the selfie. Teddie believed she would live to see a woman serve as president and regretted enduring what she thought of as the decline of decency when 45 moved into the White House instead. Nonetheless, she maintained a largely optimistic worldview: she was a faithful voter and a knowledgeable participant in the state, local, and national politics throughout her life. She envisioned a more just future for all people regardless of race, class, sex, orientation, or ability. She was proud to know that her passion lives on through her progeny.

A Celebration of her Life will be held at the end of September in Fort Collins, CO where she shared a home with four generations of females. Arrangements by Goes Funeral Home. Contributions in her name may be made to Lifetime Arts, a nonprofit organization that supports creative aging and arts programs for older adults across the United States, including Teddie's home state, New Jersey. Lifetimearts.org

The recorded video of the service may be accessed here: https://vimeo.com/755709068/a0b2165876