Donna Marie St.Onge

Donna Marie (Woodcome) St.Onge, 73, from Fitchburg, Massachusetts, died Thursday, December 22nd near her home in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

Born to the late Doris (Cramer) and Paul Woodcome on August 20, 1949 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Donna made national news when she survived a childhood accident where she was buried alive in a sawdust silo during a game of hide and seek. She was rescued thanks to the frantic and persistent barking of a stray farm dog, like an actual episode of "Lassie," and though she remained hospitalized in grave condition for quite some time, she earned the nickname "Toodles the Termite" from her doctors. She eventually recovered and went about her business with a miracle already under her belt before she got to second grade.

Donna was a graduate of Fitchburg High School's class of 1967 and attended Fitchburg State College, where she met and secretly eloped with Michael St.Onge on New Year's Eve, 1970. And by secret, we mean they got married, celebrated, then went back to their parents' respective homes where they continued to live until they finally cracked and spilled the beans to everyone. After taking a break from school for an adventure in driving across country to live on a military base, and eventually giving birth in a California military hospital, which turned into another long stay after a series of life-altering complications, Donna returned to Fitchburg to finish her degree, toting her baby girl to classes, while her husband served overseas.

It was always Donna's dream to have a huge family, she wanted her own football team, but knowing she could only ever have one daughter, she made the huge family of her dreams in other ways. She was a doting big sister-in-law to her husband's five younger siblings, a devoted aunt to her own siblings' four sons. After stints working at the Fitchburg Yarn Mill and as manager of a Child World toy store (both of which she excelled at and adored), she finally got a job as a high school biology teacher at her alma mater, Fitchburg High School, where her unofficial family expanded exponentially. Teaching was everything to her. Nobody was ever more excited to get up in front of a room full of surly teenagers to describe the reproductive habits of crayfish using props she'd crafted by hand and antique filmstrips where she'd personally re-recorded the outdated narration on her own tape deck. She threw herself into not only the work of the classroom, but into the entire culture of the school, volunteering to be the advisor for the Class of 1983. Many, many, many nights in a donated warehouse and much of her already small paycheck went to fluffing tens of thousands of crepe paper flowers to fill out the ingenious homecoming floats her kids became famous for during her time with them. And over the years, many a "difficult" student would credit Mrs. St.Onge with being one of the reasons they were able to graduate. Even the kid who ate a frog leg on a dare during a dissection lesson and had to go to the hospital to make sure he hadn't been poisoned.

After Proposition 2 1/2 gutted the Massachusetts education budget, her classroom and beloved overhead projector and microscopes gone, the newly single mother decided to use her talent for working with kids who were experiencing difficulties by becoming a social worker. Donna started at the Key Program in Fitchburg, before eventually becoming a caseworker at Fitchburg's Department of Social Services. In the early 90s, she returned to Fitchburg State College to get her MSW, where by this time, her daughter was a student. Yes, you read that right. The young mother and the baby she brought with her to campus were now classmates at the very same college. They didn't actually have any classes together, but there were many library run-ins where mom silently mouthed "Is that your boyfriend???" to daughter and daughter tried to pretend she did not see or know mom.

Donna was promoted to social work supervisor at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Family Services, which was great, but it was when she was promoted to grandmother that she was most proud. Grandparents are known for being nuts about their grandchildren, but it doesn't seem like an exaggeration to say that no grandparent has ever in the history of grandparenting loved their grandchildren more. She spoiled her two grandsons so thoroughly that as children, they would often need to take a break mid-day on Christmas morning, because their little arms were tired from opening all of the presents. Santa could hardly even compete.

After years of giving her all at DCFS, Donna started to look forward to retirement, when a few years out, a set of very particular stars aligned on a rainy afternoon. The story is too long for an already long obituary, but you should ask her daughter about it. In any case, Donna spent the last few years of her career and all of her retirement living on Cape Cod, another dream come true, and enjoying the hell out of it.

An avid and talented nature photographer, Donna spent hours out in the woods or on a marsh or beach, often with dear friends she had met on the Cape, but often alone, quiet and still. She achieved hundreds of magical shots where it seemed as if the bird or whale or fox she was watching actually conspired to pose or perform for her camera. She was like Snow White in a baseball cap and Birkenstocks.

Donna was pre-deceased by her father, Paul Henry Woodcome, her mother, Doris (Cramer) Woodcome and her dear "Sissy" Paula (Woodcome-Penniman) Smith. She leaves her heartbroken daughter, Caissie St.Onge, and her sweet son-in-law, Matthew Debenham and her devoted grandsons, Eli and Lincoln Debenham, all of Los Angeles, California. She also leaves her brother, her "Bubbie", Paul Woodcome, as well as several nephews, great nieces and nephews, former brothers and sisters-in-law who still loved her like a sister, former students, former clients, former colleagues, and very, very good friends who will miss traipsing off with her through the brush to look for the elusive snowy owl.

Donna's family is planning to send her off with a proper nautical celebration in spring when the weather is being less ridiculous. If you would like to receive details of her upcoming memorial, please email DonnaStOngeMemorial@gmail.com.

In lieu of flowers, the family knows Donna would have loved it if you would consider making a donation in her name to the Housing Assistance Corp. in Hyannis: https://haconcapecod.org/ or to the Association to Preserve Cape Cod: https://apcc.org/get-involved/donate/