Bonnie Walsh

1947 - 2015

Bonnie Walsh

AGE: 68 • Haverstraw

Bonnie Coffey Walsh, 68, of Haverstraw, NY, formerly Pearl River, a deeply beloved wife, mother and grandmother passed into Heaven with her family by her side on August 10, 2015.

Born in New York City, Bonnie graduated from Tappan Zee High School in Orangeburg, NY, where she met her future husband of 46 years, Gerry. After a brief return to the city where she graduated from St. Clare's School of Nursing in Manhattan and worked as a cardiac ICU nurse at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, Bonnie and Gerry returned to Rockland where for more than 45 years she focused on her three great passions in life - her family, her Catholic faith and her deep consideration for the sick and the dying. As a mother of four, Bonnie served among many capacities as a Girl Scout leader, a Cub Scout leader, and someone who could always be counted on to be in the front row cheering at every one of the hundreds of sports games that her kids participated in over the years. As a community leader, Bonnie had a passionate sense of right and wrong. Whether it was leading a successful fight to reform local obscenity laws and better protect children in Rockland, to challenging the school board to make bus stops safer, to fighting for the protection of the unborn, Bonnie worked tirelessly to hold elected political leaders accountable and to make Rockland a better place to live. But it was Bonnie's more than 45-year career as a nurse, first as Head Nurse of the Intensive Care Unit at Nyack Hospital and then as a hospice nurse and executive for United Hospice of Rockland where her presence was felt most widely in her community. On countless occasions, over many years, she arose and left her home in the middle of the night to care for a sick patient or minister to a family who just lost a loved one. Even in her final days, a full five years after she was first diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer despite having never been a smoker, Bonnie was still teaching classes to fellow nurses on palliative care, promoting hospice, counseling sick friends and their families, and serving as a Eucharistic Minister at St. Anthony's in Nanuet, including even Sunday Mass just eight days before she passed. So it was fitting that her final days were spent with her family at the Joe Raso Hospice Residence in New City - a facility that has helped many local families and for which Bonnie was instrumental in its founding several years ago. It is one of many legacies that will remain among all who knew and loved her as a woman who lived a life guided by incredible grace, dignity, faith and love.

Bonnie is survived by her husband Gerry, her son Brian and his wife Veronica of Arlington, VA, her son Kevin and his wife Shannon of Richmond, VA, her son Brendan and his wife Meghan of Verona, NJ, her daughter Kerry Stockwell and her husband Jeremy of New Orleans, LA, as well as nine grandchildren, Mary Grace, Christian, Kaelin, Honorah, Molly, Josie, Kelsey, Teddy, and one to be delivered in November. Bonnie and her entire family were deeply grateful for the tremendous care she received over the last five years from the doctors and staff at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and in her final days with her colleagues at United Hospice.

Visitation will be Wednesday and Thursday from 2-4 & 7-9pm at the Joseph W. Sorce Funeral Home. A Mass will be held Friday at 10am at St. Anthony's Church in Nanuet. Entombment to follow in St. Anthony's Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please consider sending donations to: United Hospice of Rockland, 11 Stokum Lane, New City, NY 10956.

Joseph W. Sorce FH Inc.

728 West Nyack Rd.

West Nyack, NY 10994

(845) 358-4433

www.sorcefuneralhome.com