PORTLAND – Barbara Goodwin, of Portland, passed away peacefully at The Cedars, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, at the age of 88, in the presence of three generations of family.

Born Barbara Maria Josephine Reisch in Upper Silesia in 1934, Barbara, along with her parents and four younger brothers and sisters, moved west from Hindenburg across Germany during World War II, eventually settling in Mainz, on the left bank of the Rhine, before departing Europe in 1951 for Montréal, Canada. In Montréal, Barbara attended Sir George Williams College and worked at the Bank of Montréal, where she developed a passion for banking and accounting.

In 1957 she met the love of her life, Terry Goodwin. The couple married that same year as they embarked on a 65-year romance that their children and grandchildren would watch continuously intensify over the years. By 1967, Barbara and Terry had three children, Alison, Mary-Louise, and Philip and the young family were living in Roxboro, a suburb of Montréal. It was when the children were young that the family began the tradition of spending parts of each summer in Biddeford Pool and they soon decided that Maine was where they wanted to be permanently.

In 1968, Terry took a job at Casco Bank and he and Barbara packed up the family and moved to a home in Portland, a community that they loved for more than half a century. The family became American citizens, which thrilled Barbara who was passionate about America. They also purchased a summer cottage on Kennebunk Beach where they lived summers, and for the next few decades they built their lives around these two communities.

As the years passed, Barbara focused first and foremost on her family. Ahead of her time, she would serve whole foods at every meal. She would serve rye bread and cucumber, onion, and sardine sandwiches to her children while most kids at school were getting bologna sandwiches. She had also discovered a Vermont medicinal and healthful folk drink of apple cider vinegar and honey, which she would give to the whole family instead of sodas. Barbara sprinkled nuts and sunflower seeds on top of their oatmeal, though the kids really wanted Captain Crunch. A generation later, her menu would come to be considered health food.

She was also determined to build family traditions around the holiday baking she would ritualistically perform at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Bringing the German and European recipes of her early years to her new American family, she would prepare for weeks to bake chocolate carrot cakes and anise cookies that will forever be understood as part of Christmas by her family. “You have to cut the sugar,” she would say, “All the recipes ask for too much sugar. Cut the sugar.”

Barbara was also a fierce and mighty gardener. From her days in Roxboro where she built stone walls behind her first home, to her final years on Wildwood Circle in Portland, she would design and plant gardens. Both as a young mother and as an octogenarian, Barbara would head into the yard with her shovel, determined to overcome the unruly landscape with her vision of beauty and order. As her strength lessened in recent years, she would often wait for the arrival of one of her family members to take them out back and direct where the hole should be dug, which plant should go in it, and always the water first, then the plant.

Barbara was also a lifelong tennis player. And she was good at it. “My team always wins,” she would boast. This was when she was 80 years old and she and her partner were among the oldest players at the tennis club.

In 1997, Barbara sat down to write Babba’s Story, the story of her childhood in Germany during World War II so that her grandchildren would have a record of what she had experienced through those terrible years. The close encounters the family had throughout the war were all told in detail. Her lifelong friend Helena, still in Germany, translated the book into German.

Above all, Barbara was a deeply faithful person who lived a life devoted to God, her spiritual life, and her service to others. For over 40 years she volunteered at the Maine Medical Center and was an active member of the Women’s Board. For these four decades she worked in the gift shop, managing it for periods and making sure it always delivered a profit which provided scholarships for medical students. Her commitment to this cause was resolute. In 2015, she received a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for Volunteer Service from President Barack Obama, acknowledging this significant commitment. In addition, throughout her life in Maine, she never went to the grocery store without filling a bag for the food insecure, and she never paid her bills without also making contributions to charitable causes. Her faith in God and her commitment to others never lapsed and was always part of her daily life.

Barbara is survived by her husband, Terry; and her children Alison Goodwin and Peter Nielsen of Rockland, Mary Louise and Dr. Douglass Hassan of Fox Island, Wash., and Philip and Barbara Goodwin of Cape Elizabeth; by her grandchildren Izabel Nielsen, and Noah Nielsen and his spouse Sandy Tugwood; Dean, Neal, and Grant Hassan; and Alex and Casey Goodwin.

She was predeceased by her parents; and her brothers Alexander and Sebastian, and survived by her brother, Michael Reisch and his wife Ileana of Carlisle, Mass., her sister Juliane and her husband James Wilbee of Toronto, Ontario; her sister-in-law, Sandra Reisch of Cobourg, Ontario; and by numerous nieces, nephews; and grandnieces and nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Pius X Church, 492 Ocean Ave., Portland at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 30, followed by a committal service at Evergreen Cemetery in Portland. You may offer your condolences or share your memories at http://www.jonesrichandbarnes.com

The family sends special thanks to the wonderfully caring people at Northern Light Palliative Care and Hospice and The Cedars Nursing Home.

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