Mary Anne Seward

Mary Anne Seward passed away peacefully Saturday, December, 21, 2024. She was surrounded by her family. Mary Anne is survived by her three children, Ruth Seward and her husband Chris Cain, Jean Abrahams and her husband David Abrahams, and DeWitt C. Seward and his wife, Sharon Seward, her 7 grandchildren, Gabriel Cain, Lillian Cain, Charlotte Cain, Hannah Abrahams, Joshua Abrahams, William Seward and Elizabeth Seward, Bonus children, Brian Colbert and Umit Kumcuogli, and bonus grandchild Anh Dao.
Mary Anne was a wife, mother, teacher, entrepreneur, family chef, and friend to all. She was born in the Nyack Hospital in Nyack NY on Sept 23, 1941. Her parents were Eugene Cacciamani and Mary Anne Cacciamani (nee Daniels). She graduated Nyack High School in 1959 and New Paltz college in 1963 where she studied to be a math teacher.
Mary married DeWitt Clinton (Clint) Seward in June of 1963 at the Catholic chapel at West Point where Clint had just graduated. They spent 5 years in the US Air Force in the service of their country, where she would find jobs teaching in the local schools. They spent their free time in the car traveling the country, including one memorable trip to Yellowstone National Park, and several trips to Disney World with their three children. Although they did travel to London, Mary's one unfulfilled wish was to visit Italy where her grandparents came from.
Eventually, they settled in Bethel, CT, a location chosen in part because it was close to her family, where she would often visit. Mary spent many of her weekends taking her family to Nyack, NY to visit her parents and her father-in-law, and often included trips to visit her cousins as well.
Mary was a teacher throughout most of her adult life, most recently teaching 3rd and 6th grades as well as math at St. Mary's Elementary School in Bethel, CT from 1976 until 1985 when she retired. She was widely considered to be many students' favorite teacher, including her son, and many of her students kept in touch with her long after they had graduated from her classroom.
In 1985, Mary and her family moved to Acton, MA where she eventually owned her own business where she worked with her husband and son for several years. She earned at least one award for being the Female Business Owner of the Year from the US government.
To know Mary was to be her friend. She was an inquisitive person with an enormous curiosity about other people. After meeting people for the first time, it was not uncommon for Mary to learn an extraordinary level of details about their lives: their children, family, careers, aspirations. She was the type of person that immediately made strangers feel comfortable, and left new acquaintances feeling as if they had known her their entire lives. Her children and husband would often marvel at Mary's ability to walk away from a short conversation knowing a new person's entire life and family history.
But Mary's real passion was for her family. She was a wonderful wife to Clint, mother to her three children, and grandmother to her 7 grandchildren. She also had a habit of adopting new people into her family, with open, sincere invitations to visit that was her favorite part of life. It was common for her to host nieces, nephews, and friends as they passed through town on long car trips or happened to be in the area or made special trips to visit. If you had a favorite food, there was a guarantee she'd have made it for you, ready for your arrival. One cousin credits Mary with sparking a life long passion for making manicotti for her own friends and relatives, an activity we were able to share in the last few months of Mary's life. Even towards the end of her life, when she was starting to have trouble with her memory, she could still recite the names of all those she considered family and give an accurate, recent update on their lives. In this respect, she was among the richest people to have ever lived. She is well loved and will be missed by many.
A Memorial Mass will be held in St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish, 89 Arlington Street, Acton, on Saturday, January 11, 2025 at 10 AM. Please meet directly at church.
At the family's request, in lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Mary's memory to the Dana Farber Cancer institute at https://www.dana-farber.org/how-you-can-help/ways-to-give/make-a-memorial-or-tribute-gift.