““My mama had a dancing heart and she shared that heart with me.”
Libba Moore Gray
Rhea Berube Cashman, 94, closed her blue, blue eyes forever on July 25, 2016, shutting out the sights and sounds of her confusing world. Her daughters Patti (Smith), Sharon (Truex) and Michele (Fendler) choose to remember her as she was when she was home with them as children. It is Rhea’s playful heart that shaped their childhoods – housebound Sundays jitterbugging to “In the Mood”; first snowflake walks singing “Winter Wonderland”; July rainstorms splashing in warm puddles popping with dish soap bubbles. Rhea was child-like in her enjoyment of life. She created magical worlds of forts and art studios and dance floors for her girls, and then for her grandchildren – Brendan, Colin, Tessa and Rory Truex, and Patrick Renstrom. At Nanny’s they were literally kids in a candy store. What simple joys they shared with her. What fun it was to be with her. Rhea was born in 1922 to Denis and Amanda Berube in the small French Canadian town of Eagle Lake, ME. Together with her older brothers Roosevelt and Alfie, she enjoyed a life of skating on the lake, riding to church in a horse-carriage, and caring for her sheep Blackie. She graduated with a teaching degree from Madawaska Training School and began a teaching career in Maine. When at age twenty Rhea lost her mother; she left for Connecticut and joined the war-time effort at Colts. She fell for the charms of Army Air Corps Staff Sergeant Edmund “Bud” Cashman. They married and built a home in Wethersfield where they raised their family and lived to celebrate sixty-eight years of marriage. When Patti and Sharon were in school, Rhea resumed a teaching career at the Immaculate Conception School in Hartford, working her magic on forty-plus kindergarteners in the morning session, and forty-plus in the afternoon. Rhea left her position when Michele, her bonus baby, was born and gave her another chance to do what she loved most – bring up a child. When at last the nest was empty, Rhea found company in the Wethersfield Art League and Nine-Holers at Wethersfield Country Club. Rhea leaves behind to remember her, her daughters and devoted sons-in law, Paul Smith, Richard Truex, and Gary Fendler, five grandchildren and their spouses, Brendan and Eileen Truex of Wethersfield, Colin and Jenny Truex of San Diego, CA; Tessa and Jorge Beruff of NY,NY; Rory Truex and Katherine Ensler of Philadelphia, PA; and Patrick Renstrom of Boston, MA. She also leaves behind two great-grandchildren Griffin and Campbell Truex of SanDiego, CA, who appear to have inherited her fun-loving spirit. She also leaves many nieces and nephews, brother and sisters -in-law Raymond and Elaine Cashman of Charlotte, NC; Mary Lavoie of West Hartford, and Louise “Tiny” Kelly of Palm Beach, FL. She was predeceased by her parents, her husband Bud, her brothers and sister-in-laws from Eagle Lake, Roosevelt and Adrienne, Alfie and Erline, her nephew Jimmy Berube, her brothers-in law, Warren Lavoie and Richard Kelly. The family wishes to thank the kind caregivers at the Ledgecrest Healthcare Center in Kensington who brought peace to Rhea’s final year, and Magda Kozlowska who cared so lovingly for Rhea in her home for seven years and brought peace to her family. Rhea lost her use of words but she showed what was in her heart by kissing the hands of those who showed her kindness. Rhea lives on in the hearts of those she touched. Hers is now at rest. Beaucoup love, notre mere. Meme si le temps passe, nous n’oublions pas. A Memorial Service celebrating Rhea’s life will be held Saturday July 30, 2016 at 11:00 am in the Farley-Sullivan Funeral Home, 34 Beaver Rd. Wethersfield, followed by burial in Village Cemetery, Marsh St. Wethersfield. Friends may call from 10:00-11:00 am at the funeral home. Memorial donations may be made to the Protector of Animals, 114 Main St. East Hartford, CT 06118..To extend online condolences or further information, please visit Farleysullivan.com.