Sandra Madeleine Racine Normandin

Sandra Madeleine Racine Normandin, 78, of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, formerly of Westminster, Massachusetts, died September 1, 2025. She is survived by her daughters Jill, Jody, and Hollybeth, and her sisters Linda and Jessica.

Funeral services will be held Friday, September 19, at 11 a.m. at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, 49 Woodland Street, Fitchburg, followed by burial at St. Joseph's Cemetery and a reception at 1 p.m. at the Old Mill in Westminster.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the ASPCA or St. John's Parish (links below). In addition, we'd like to pursue the restoration and future donation of her beloved parlor-grand Steinway in honor of, and the benefit of, those with limitations of the body alone--and a blasting, boogie-woogie mind. Stay tuned!

Sandy grew up in the French-Canadian Cleghorn section of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Sandy was a born musician and artist. At three years old, she stunned the nuns of St. Joseph's with her talent at the piano. She'd play anything, and her gift became her family's joy-especially the rollicking, intricate boogie-woogie. The Racine family Christmases were alight with songs sung around the piano and her painted gifts.

Sandy lived in the Westminster area for almost 50 years. She was born with crippling spina bifida occulta requiring 28 major surgeries, and also dyscalculia. Her spirit never faltered. Against every odd, her ferocious devotion and furious dedication powered the impossible-three girls with three engineering degrees.

Recently, Sandy lived in the oceanside Fenwood neighborhood of Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

After 15 years of a chronically abscessed foot, partial blindness, and rabid heart failure sliding into flatlining three times, Sandy developed another hobby: biking. She biked for two hours a day on an electric trike-except when the temperature dipped below 30°F. Against every odd-again-Sandy kept biking and bouncing back from organ failure, forging several miraculous recoveries. A photo of her biking-taken two weeks before her passing-was passed around cardiac, kidney, and pulmonary teams in absolute, stunned wonder. The experts were shocked; her family was not. Sandy smashed common resilience into fiery courage until the very end.

Sandy is survived by her sisters, Jessica (Donald) Leger and Linda (Bob) Perry; her three daughters, Jill (Brian) Mygatt, Jody (Mark) Lech of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and Hollybeth (Tom) Runco of Providence, Rhode Island; her grandchildren, Joshua Lech, Killian and Ravenna Skye Runco; and her nieces and nephews, Lucas (Nadine) and Marisa (Zak) Leger, and Jason (Kelly), Ryan, and Adam (Jen) Perry.

She was predeceased by her parents, Fleurange Gagne and Bernard Racine.

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