Deborah Griffin Donoway

Beloved wife, mother and Grandmother, Deborah Sue Donoway, passed away peacefully holding the hand of her husband, Thurman Dale Donoway Jr., Saturday, February 10th at Tidal Health Peninsula Regional. Born at the same hospital on August 17th 1959 she spent her life dedicated to the service and unrelenting love of her family and friends.
From her earliest days she exuded a love for all those she met, embracing and sharing that love with everyone around her. Including her lifelong best friend, Christy Layton, whom she met early in her youth and later worked with, at Livingston and Sons HVAC. It was there with her friend that she honed the office skills that she would take with her to the Fruitland Police department where she faithfully served, "Her Boys" as she called her officers, as an Office Manager and Dispatcher until her retirement in 2016.
Not long after meeting Christy she would meet the love of her life and husband, Thurman, whom she married on Saturday, June 4th, 1977. Soon thereafter they welcomed their first son named in honor of his father, Thurman, and then two more boys, Jeff and Robert, not long after that. Along with her husband she spent the next 25 years of her life doting on her children, engaging in every aspect of their lives from acting as Secretary of multiple PTAs, to working as "team mom" and serving on the board at East Wicomico Little League, to just being at the many games, matches, and tournaments, they had, athletic and academic, and cheering louder and prouder than anyone else in attendance. She watched with pride as her oldest and middle son began their careers and started families, and wept as her youngest walked across the stage at Towson University becoming the first of them to finish his degree. She spent many years sharing her love for her children with everyone she met whether through stories of their lives or the countless photos she was always ready to show.
Nothing was as important to her as her children until she welcomed her first grandson, Wyatt, followed quickly by Eden, Bella, Daniel, Berkeley, Luca, and Moxie, it was then that she was able to expand her heart and role to include that of grandmother, a roll in which she truly shined. No less devoted to them than to her children. She made it her mission to never miss an event, sometimes driving miles to watch one grandson's scout ceremony in Willards, then immediately driving all the way to Fruitland to catch a ball game of another, or to Ocean City to watch a cheer competition. Indeed "Debbie and Dale" as she and her husband were often called, traveled all across the country for their children and grandchildren. From watching competitions as far away as North Carolina, Missouri, Florida, and Kentucky, to witnessing their middle child's graduation from Air Force Basic Training in Texas, to taking her mother to visit their youngest son, Robert, who now resides in Los Angeles, California.
For nearly 50 years "Debbie and Dale" were inseparable and so it was when she passed away, holding her husband's hand until her heart had stopped, and then in one last act of love giving of herself as an organ donor so that others could continue their lives. It is deeply hoped that some part of the great love she had lives on in them, as it does in her family and friends, and that they too will carry that immense love that she had and keep letting its light brighten the world we are all so lucky to have shared with her.
Debbie Donoway is survived by her loving husband, Thurman Dale Donoway Jr., Her Mother, Barbara Smart, her children, Thurman Donoway III and wife Ashton, Jeff and partner Katie Smith, and her youngest son Robert, along with her grandchildren Wyatt, Eden, Bella, Daniel, Berkeley, Luca, and Moxie Donoway, Connor Fadely and Emma Fadely. Her brothers George Griffin and John Hall, as well as many nieces, nephews, cousins and other beloved family and friends. She was preceded in death by her father George Griffin Sr. and brother Henry Griffin Sr.
She will leave behind a legacy of unwavering love for all those she met, and the world, though darkened by her loss, will shine, someday, brighter still as those lives she touched remember her and honor her example by sharing that love with all those they meet and continue spreading that love to one day blanket all in the warmth that she so steadfastly shared with her family and friends.