Margaret (Peggy) Bahnson, beloved mother, grandmother, sister and aunt, passed away peacefully on December 22, 2025. She was 77 years old.
Born in Keene, New Hampshire on October 14, 1948, Peggy was the daughter of Margaret and Marshall Rector. She grew up in Montpelier, Vermont, with her sister Patricia. She later attended nursing school at St. Vincent Hospital School of Nursing in Worcester, Massachusetts. After graduation, she went on to work as a nurse in several states, including Connecticut, Vermont, and Georgia and abroad in Haiti. She served with a generous spirit, compassionate heart and boundless patience. After her marriage and the birth of her two children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Peggy moved to Mendon, Vermont where she lived for many years, before later moving to Fort Collins, Colorado and then to Melrose, Massachusetts.
Many of Peggy's dear friends will remember her as a passionate and talented quilter. She made countless quilts over many decades of her life, many pieced and quilted entirely by hand and all made with love for their recipient. She volunteered with Vermont Cares in the 1980s and 1990s, and contributed to the AIDS Memorial Quilt when that project was in its infancy. In the late 1990s, she opened Peggy's Patchwork Quilt Shop in Rutland, Vermont. She became a fixture of the quilting community there, teaching classes, running the store, and offering instruction and a warm presence to anyone who came inside, often alongside her beloved golden retriever, Marley.
Peggy walked through the world with a kind and open heart, listening to and caring deeply for those around her. She was known to make friends wherever she went and would always take the time to stop and say hello to the people around her.
But above all else, Peggy cherished her role as mother to her two children, Jennifer and Gregg, and as grandmother to Arden and Phoebe. Known affectionately as Gammie, there was nothing she would not have done for her grandchildren. Gammie was a steady presence in Arden and Phoebe's lives as they grew up, teaching them how to sew and quilt, how to play cribbage, and, most importantly, how to see and appreciate the wonder in the world.
Peggy is survived by her children, Jennifer Bahnson and her husband Christopher Nasveschuk of Stoneham, Massachusetts, and Gregg Bahnson of Portland, Maine, her grandchildren Arden and Phoebe, her sister, Patricia Maclean of Gold Canyon, Arizona, her niece Kimberly Gallagher of Gold Canyon, Arizona and countless friends she has made along the way.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Peggy's memory to the Sawtelle Family Hospice House in Reading, Massachusetts.
Born in Keene, New Hampshire on October 14, 1948, Peggy was the daughter of Margaret and Marshall Rector. She grew up in Montpelier, Vermont, with her sister Patricia. She later attended nursing school at St. Vincent Hospital School of Nursing in Worcester, Massachusetts. After graduation, she went on to work as a nurse in several states, including Connecticut, Vermont, and Georgia and abroad in Haiti. She served with a generous spirit, compassionate heart and boundless patience. After her marriage and the birth of her two children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Peggy moved to Mendon, Vermont where she lived for many years, before later moving to Fort Collins, Colorado and then to Melrose, Massachusetts.
Many of Peggy's dear friends will remember her as a passionate and talented quilter. She made countless quilts over many decades of her life, many pieced and quilted entirely by hand and all made with love for their recipient. She volunteered with Vermont Cares in the 1980s and 1990s, and contributed to the AIDS Memorial Quilt when that project was in its infancy. In the late 1990s, she opened Peggy's Patchwork Quilt Shop in Rutland, Vermont. She became a fixture of the quilting community there, teaching classes, running the store, and offering instruction and a warm presence to anyone who came inside, often alongside her beloved golden retriever, Marley.
Peggy walked through the world with a kind and open heart, listening to and caring deeply for those around her. She was known to make friends wherever she went and would always take the time to stop and say hello to the people around her.
But above all else, Peggy cherished her role as mother to her two children, Jennifer and Gregg, and as grandmother to Arden and Phoebe. Known affectionately as Gammie, there was nothing she would not have done for her grandchildren. Gammie was a steady presence in Arden and Phoebe's lives as they grew up, teaching them how to sew and quilt, how to play cribbage, and, most importantly, how to see and appreciate the wonder in the world.
Peggy is survived by her children, Jennifer Bahnson and her husband Christopher Nasveschuk of Stoneham, Massachusetts, and Gregg Bahnson of Portland, Maine, her grandchildren Arden and Phoebe, her sister, Patricia Maclean of Gold Canyon, Arizona, her niece Kimberly Gallagher of Gold Canyon, Arizona and countless friends she has made along the way.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Peggy's memory to the Sawtelle Family Hospice House in Reading, Massachusetts.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Margaret Bahnson, please visit our flower store.
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