Adele R. Holmes

Adele Ruth (Mettberg) Holmes of Tenafly, NJ, Mendham, NJ, and Milford, NH passed away on December 9, 2006 in Manchester, NH surrounded by family. Adele was born and raised in Palisades Park, NJ. After graduating from Endicott College, she worked for the New York Times and volunteered for the Women’s Republican Club, Junior League and Presbyterian Church, all of Tenafly, NJ where she lived with her husband and family. Adele was an active citizen and parent, working to establish the first New Jersey chapter of the Alzheimer’s Foundation with her lifelong best friend, Eleanor Ebner. Adele met her devoted husband Edwin Albert Holmes in high school. They were married after Ed completed a tour of duty with the Navy and he settled into co-owning and operating Ridgefield Coal and Supply Company, a home heating oil business. Together, they enriched their children with travel opportunities and back-to-nature summers in Silverton, NJ and Twin Lakes, PA, always near the water which Adele loved. When not homemaking or volunteering, Adele enjoyed oil painting, candle wicking, needlepoint, and sewing. Adele punctuated the family fun with life-lesson clichés like ‘a stitch in time saves nine, if first you don’t succeed, try, try again, and you make your bed you lay in it.’ Her legacy of love, education, faith, and honesty lives on with the families of three appreciative daughters: Lisa and John David of Amherst, NH (grandchildren Ashley and Spencer), Melissa and Hans Laaspere of Londonderry, NH (grandchildren Glenn and Kirsten), and Karen and John Nastuk of Danvers, MA (grandchildren David and Eric). She is also survived by her brother Raymond Mettberg with niece, Doris Crotty and family all in Secaucus, NJ, and a nephew Thomas Mettberg and family in Virginia, and was predeceased by her other brother Gilbert Mettberg. The entire family is grateful for the care and support of Villa Crest Nursing and Retirement Home, Hanover Street, Manchester, NH 03104 for the past 4 years, in which Ed continues to maintain a wooded-view apartment. Services will be private. Donations in Adele Holmes’ name may be sent to the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 North Michigan, Chicago, IL, 60601 Phaneuf Funeral Homes and Crematorium is in charge of local arrangements. To view an on-line memorial, get directions or for more information, go to www.phaneuf.net.