JoAnn B. Coleman

Jo Ann (Ball) Coleman, 91, died at home Sunday, September 28, 2025, from complications of ALS diagnosed last November. Smiling and gracious until the end, she found the disease "frustrating," mostly because she -- the one accustomed to care-giving -- was now in need of what family and friends gratefully provided.

Like a grand opera, Jo Ann's life breaks down into five roughly equal acts. In the first act, she is born an only child in Cincinnati, OH on January 21, 1934, to Dr. John and Lela (Euyler) Ball. Her parents had moved to Cincinnati for her father to attend medical school, and she had only rare visits with extended family in Rushville, IL.

The second act opens at the Ohio State University where she majored in Home Economics and Child Development and was an active member of Tri Delta Sorority. There she met and married Jim Bostwick with whom she eventually had four children, the foundation of the large family she craved, having grown up essentially alone. As a homemaker and dutiful Air Force wife, she accompanied Jim to assignments in Texas, California, England, Ohio, and Massachusetts. At Otis AFB, she met Rita Ottaviano, a fellow Cub Scout den mother, thus embarking upon a six-decade best-friendship punctuated each year by Rita making her favorite coconut cream pie on her birthday. When the Air Force sent Jim to Thailand during the Vietnam Conflict, she relocated with her children to East Falmouth and declared herself a Cape Codder, calling Falmouth home for the rest of her days.

The third act opens with twin losses: her marriage to Jim, closely followed by the suicide of her second child, Dougie at age 14. After nearly losing herself in grief, she tapped into resilience she didn't know she had to start over and establish herself as an independent woman. She waited tables at Elsie's Delicatessen and worked as a Teacher Assistant in the Falmouth Public Schools while completing studies for the teaching certification that qualified her for a career as a Title 1 teacher at Mullen-Hall Elementary School. Sharing the empathy she gained from Dougie's death, she volunteered for more than 20 years for the Samaritans suicide hotline. She also took up the sport of curling, and at the Falmouth Curling Club met Justin Coleman, a widower 13 years her senior, who would help usher in the fourth act.

Exemplifying the aphorism that age is just a number, her marriage to Justin was a true love match and in him she stated that she found her "soulmate." Justin doted on her and she on him. They spent 17 happy years together in the house on Ashumet Pond, lovebirds enjoying tracking the flocks of waterbirds that frequented their beach and the annual arrival and departure of Jo Ann's favorite hummingbirds at the carefully tended feeder outside the kitchen window. At age 69, on a lark, she got a hummingbird tattoo, discreetly hidden, "just for me." During Justin's final illness, she lovingly nursed him herself, making sure he got his wish to die at home.

For her fifth and final act as a widow, she reveled in the joy family, friends, and community daily brought her. Her house became Party Central for the birthdays, always with a money cake, of her children and grandchildren, holiday celebrations, and family cookouts to which she often contributed her deviled eggs and one of her famous fruit or nut pies. She volunteered for 13 rewarding years as a chaplain's assistant at Falmouth Hospital and joined a rug hooking group that met frequently in members' homes for coffee, goodies, and a little needlework. She also continued her active 60-years involvement in the governance of her beloved First Congregational Church and volunteered most recently as a mentor to a student in the Falmouth Public Schools. At the age of 82, Jo Ann beat breast cancer and, at the age of 88, had her hip replaced. She adopted Giselle from People For Cats, her stoutly steady companion of 12 years. Her final illness caught up with her insidiously, undiagnosed until ten months before she died at home, with family nearby, as was her desire.

Jo Ann always showed a fierce and unconditional love for her family-her children and grandchildren alike. In regard to her loved ones, she frequently commented on how "blessed" she was. She absolutely adored her one granddaughter and seven grandsons and, in true Jo Ann fashion, managed to create a deeply personal relationship with each of them. She was beyond proud of all of them and the impact of her deep love and devotion will, no doubt, guide, support and remain with them forever. After Jo Ann had been so vibrant and vital for so long, the end -- thankfully -- came quickly, with her anticipating -- with deep faith -- that she would see Dougie and Justin in heaven immediately and her other loved ones when it was their time. She touched countless lives with her kind, loving, non-judgmental nature and, right to the end, she always shared her beautiful smile and often, if you were lucky, a jar of homemade jam with those around her. She will be missed beyond measure by all those who loved her. Jo Ann wanted most to be remembered as a survivor, for her giving of herself as a volunteer, and for her "love of family, faith, friends, hummingbirds, and the First Congregational Church."

Survivors include Dr. Michael Bostwick and his wife Dr. Connie Williams of Rochester, MN, and their children, Hannah, also of Rochester, and Gabe who with his fiancé Zoe lives in Seattle; Gary Bostwick, his wife Kim, and sons Colin and Evan, all of East Falmouth; Pam Coakley and her husband Bruce of Pocasset, and sons Jacob of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Matthew of Pocasset with fiancée McKayla Cotuit of West Bridgewater, David and his wife Amber of East Falmouth, and Mark of Ithaca, NY; and, of course, Giselle, the cat.

A celebration of life, followed by a reception, will be held at the First Congregational Church of Falmouth, 68 Main St., Falmouth on Saturday, November 29, 2025 at 12:00PM. A private interment will be at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, MA.

In lieu of flowers and to honor Jo Ann's memory, donations can be made in her name to The First Congregational Church of Falmouth, The Samaritans of Cape Cod and the Islands, The Falmouth Hospital Auxiliary, Falmouth VIPS, or the charity of one's choice.