Elaine Ellen (Bishop) Reeves

Elaine Ellen (Bishop) Reeves, 74, died in a memory care facility on Friday, December 6, 2024, after a nearly 15-year journey with Alzheimer’s disease. 

Elaine was born in New Hampshire on September 25, 1950, the youngest child of her loving parents, Earl and Lea Bishop. She grew up in Merrimack and graduated from Merrimack High School, where her beauty and wit undoubtedly caused the grief of would-be suitors before she married her first love, Michael. She later moved to Hudson, Florida, where her parents retired. She was always the caregiver to put the oxygen mask on others and neglect to wear it herself. 

Above all, Elaine was a devoted mother to her children—Danielle, Greg, and Garrett—and wife to her husband and partner, Neal, of 44 years. She loved all children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews and bargain-shopped every day of the year to make sure she had something for each one at Christmas.

She will be best remembered for her cooking and baking. Never one to eat much herself, she produced extensive buffets for holidays and other celebrations. If you were visiting her home, that was a celebration. 

What people may not know is that Elaine was also a brilliant strategist and planned for her own long-term care decades before she needed it. She fought hard against the disease, even going to college for the first time in her mid-50s and earning an AAS degree in polysomnography (sleep medicine) in an effort to build cognitive reserve. She did not go gentle into that good night. 

Elaine is survived by her husband, Neal; daughter, Danielle; son, Gregory; and four grandchildren, Edison, Franklin, Maxine, and Lila. She is preceded in death by her parents, her brother Wayne Bishop, her sister Sheila Levesque, and her son, Garrett. 

A Celebration of Life will be held at Phaneuf Funeral Homes, 250 Coolidge Avenue, Manchester, NH 03102, on Saturday, January 4, from 2-4pm with service beginning at 2:30pm.