Jacqueline Donna Haaf

Jacqueline Donna (Haman) Haaf (formerly of North Haven) passed away on August 31st, 2023. She came into this world, with her infectious smile, on May 24, 1928 in Pittsburgh, PA.

Jacquie began exploring the world right away - traveling home to Columbus, Ohio with her mother, Dorothy (Dot) Deaver Dolby, and beloved Aunt Peg, then on to New York City where she grew up with father John Haman, and brothers Donald and Gary. She started traveling on her own at age 7 when Dot put her on the train back to Ohio, entrusting her to the care of the porters.

Back in NY she enjoyed rollerskating on the West Side Highway, skipping classes at PS 58 when the Brooklyn Dodgers won, earning badges in girl scouts, winning a sewing award at Franklin K Lane High, and being awarded her nurse's cap at the Brooklyn Methodist Hospital School of Nursing.

In 1955 at Camp Quinipet, she met, and soon married, 'Gene (the Rev. Eugene) Haaf. They began their life of service at Prospect United Methodist Church in Bristol, CT and started their family with the birth of Richard. They moved on to Trinity Methodist in Richmond Hill, where David and Paul were born, and then to Hampton Bays United Methodist and the surprise birth of twins, Donna and Beth.

How do you fit their love and life of service into a paragraph? Jacquie was the quintessential minister's wife, a leader in the local church, the District and Conference, Dean of the School of Mission, General Assembly Representative, active in the wider community through Church Women United, Visiting Nurses Association, and League of Women Voters. She traveled around the country, planning and attending conferences and seminars, eager to connect with people around the world, including through work at the UN. She was "Mother" to international students from Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, as well as to the kids in the Methodist Youth Fellowship, to the friends of her children, and, in retirement in New Jersey, to the kids at Whiting Elementary School.

She was a dear friend to many and always up for an adventure, from a crash landing in her friend's Piper Cub (headlines read "Two fillies scratched at Aqueduct"), to Thanksgivings in Pine Bush, NY, trips into the city or out to Long Island. Vacations were planned around visits to friends and family all around the country - witness the epic, month-long cross-country trip, hauling a pop-up camper, to attend the 1977 Dolby Family Reunion and Luau. Jacquie, the navigator, drew a line along the road from friend to family member to friend, across the country and back, through half the states - would have hit all 50, if they had another month.

When she couldn't visit, she would reach out, sending newspaper and magazine clippings with letters written long-hand, to family, friends and pen-pals, like Olivia de Havilland. She sent clippings, because a small thing she read would spark a memory of you - distance and time would melt away and she just had to let you know that you were still in her heart.

When her kids had kids, she bounced Kalynda in her arms and sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and set Taylor and Wesley down and taught them to eat grass. One of Taylor's first words was "Buckeyes". Grandma Jacquie was still the little girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead.

Her family, her friends, the parishioners at the churches she and her husband served, her colleagues, and the caring staff in her final homes at Crestwood Manor and Atria Larson Place described her as adventurous, loving, smart, intelligent, brainy, mischievous, and kind, fun-loving, and a mentor, like a mother to me, saved my life. She is sorely missed, but is surely making friends with the porters as she steps aboard the last train home.

Services will be held on Saturday Oct. 28th, 10:30 a.m, at Faith UMC, 81 Clintonville Road, North Haven, CT 06473. Should friends desire please consider a memorial contribution to Faith UMC.