Margaret C. McHugh, loving mother of five children and 13 grandchildren, died peacefully on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
Throughout her 91 years, Margaret’s gentle grit, practical nature and faith in God carried her through incredibly difficult times. She has been a role model for her family in coping with life’s challenges with dignity and grace.
Margaret was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., to John D. and Margaret R. Quinn during the Depression. Her younger brother, John, took to calling her “Sis,” a nickname that stuck.
When she was 12, a boy named Theodore J. McHugh moved in across the street on Prospect Place. Four years later, she asked him to be her date to the junior prom. They wed in May 1955.
As a child, she attended St. Teresa School, where she was known by her middle name, Cecelia. Margaret recalled being one of 70 children in her first-grade class. She excelled at Fontbonne Hall Academy, a private, all-girls Roman Catholic high school. A brochure showing horses attracted her to the school, though she discovered none on campus. Still, she made the two-hour round trip by subway after attending morning Mass each day.
A graduate of the Katherine Gibbs School, Margaret worked at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn as a skilled secretary and stenographer until 1959, when her first child, Thomas, was born.
Four others, Catherine (Katie), Patricia (Tricia), Margaret and Patrick, followed. Margaret loved to take her children to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and Prospect Park to feed the ducks and visit the boathouse or skate in the winter.
The family moved to Port Jefferson Station on Long Island in 1968. Margaret became a Cub Scout den mother and taught religious education for several years.
While money was often short, Margaret found ways to make it stretch: she saved through strategic grocery shopping and doing without any frills herself. When McDonald’s hamburgers went on sale six for $1, she piled several of her kids into the station wagon, each with a coupon and a dollar and the pennies tax in hand, to bring home for a treaty feast. Over the years, she scraped together enough for an above-ground pool and to take her children on a weeklong vacation at Lake Wallenpaupack in Pennsylvania.
Returning to work at Stony Brook University in the early 1980s began a new chapter. Margaret was assistant to the director of student housing during years when her two eldest children attended the SUNY school. She later served as secretary to the university’s library director until she retired in 1996.
Margaret felt strongly about education and encouraged her children to attend college. All became professionals, a doctor, an engineer and an architect among them.
Grandchildren began to arrive in 1990, and Margaret traveled to her children’s homes to help care for them and lighten the new parents’ load. When her children endured serious health problems over the years, Margaret was a source of strength with her caring and strong connection to God.
Widowed in 1993, Margaret continued to care for her father on Long Island. She moved to Sparta in 2006 after her father died to be near her daughters.
She was active in the Sparta senior center community, taking exercise classes in person, then online during the COVID pandemic. She loved to read and could knock out a 400-page historic novel in a day. She also was a skilled knitter, making cozy afghans, baby blankets and shawls.
Margaret was a devoted parishioner at Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic Church in Sparta and a generous donor to numerous charities.
She is survived by her children: Thomas McHugh and his wife, Karen; Catherine Ann McHugh and her husband, Louis Jacobson; Patricia Storms and her husband, Jim; Margaret Crouse and her husband, Douglass; and Patrick McHugh. She also is survived by her beloved grandchildren: Matthew Jacobson and his wife, Emily; Olivia McHugh and her husband, Rob Enterline; James Storms; William Storms; Julianna Jacobson; Ben McHugh; Sarah Jacobson; Tessa McHugh; Lauren McHugh; Canavan Storms; Shea McHugh; Tim McHugh; and Quinn Crouse.
She was predeceased by her husband, parents and brother, John.
Visitation for Margaret was April 14 at Goble Funeral Home, with a funeral Mass the next day at Our Lady of the Lake Church, Sparta. Cremation was private.
In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate a donation in Margaret’s honor to the Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice or a charity that is meaningful to you.