Karen Shook Taddonio

Plymouth - Karen Shook Taddonio - beloved mother, wife, "Kiki" (grandmother), sister, friend and early childhood educator - died peacefully at home on July 13 in Plymouth, MA at age 68, nearly two years after she was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer.

Married for 45 years to her high school sweetheart, Dr. Richard Taddonio, Karen considered life's greatest blessings to be her family and friends (followed closely by the beach, board games, and the music of the Beatles!). She never forgot to send a birthday card, missed a chance to offer encouragement, or passed up an opportunity to see the best in others. She cultivated and maintained friendships that lasted decades. Her legacy of kindness, compassion, thoughtfulness and optimism will live on forever.

Born in Lower Merion, PA, to parents Theodore and Constance Shook, Karen graduated from Nether Providence High School in Wallingford, PA in 1972 and earned her Bachelor's degree in individual and family studies at Penn State in 1975. She married Rich, the love of her life, in 1978. They made each other laugh, held hands in bed every single night throughout Karen's illness, and raised two daughters who are endlessly grateful to have such wonderful parents.

Karen had a lifelong love of working with children and a gift for making every person she met feel loved, respected and appreciated. She interned at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia as a play therapist in the infant medical unit, worked for the Head Start program in Washington, PA, and spent more than a decade as a preschool and kindergarten teaching assistant at Breezy Point Day School in Langhorne, PA. Karen particularly loved helping kids learn to read: Seeing that lightbulb go on when they put it all together, she said, was like a miracle.

But more than anything, Karen loved being a mom. Raising her and Rich's two daughters to be compassionate people with the confidence to pursue their dreams was her greatest goal and her greatest joy. That joy was amplified when Karen became "Kiki" to two precious grandsons ("Those two little boys are the light of my life," she was known to say). In 2020, after 60-plus years of living in PA, Karen moved to Plymouth, MA, with Rich to be closer to their daughters and grandchildren (but fear not, PA friends and family: she continued rooting for the Phillies).

Karen was lightning-fast and undefeated when playing "name that tune" for music from the '50s and '60s. She loved Broadway shows, interior design, Bravo, jigsaw and crossword puzzles, and brainteasers (she beat her daughter at Boggle even when contending with a golf ball-sized brain tumor). She loved spending time at the Delaware shore with her husband as he fished - sitting next to him, feeling the sand between her toes, and enjoying the sound of the ocean as she read a good book or HGTV magazine.

Both before and after her August 2021 cancer diagnosis, Karen taught those around her to practice gratitude, to value family, to love one another, to take care of each other, and to laugh with each other - long, hard, and as often as possible.

Karen is survived and forever adored by her husband, Richard; her daughters, Patrice and Courtney; her sons-in-law, Jackson and Kyle; her grandsons, Daniel and Teddy; her siblings, Paul and Elaine; her extended family; and the many people whose lives she touched over the years. A memorial service celebrating her life will take place in the early fall. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Karen's memory to the PBS investigative journalism series FRONTLINE (frontline.org/tributegifts), or in support of brain cancer research at Massachusetts General Hospital, where Karen received treatment. Donations by check can be made out to MGH, Dr. Dietrich's Brain Cancer Research Fund, and sent to Heidi Bergmeyer, MGH Development Office, 125 Nashua St., Suite 540, Boston, MA 02114.