Eileen Fletcher Leighton died peacefully on April 7, 2017. She was born Eileen Wentworth Narraway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, January 6, 1924 as the fourth of five children to Athos Maxwell and Alice Hetherington Narraway. According to her sister, she had the “sunny disposition” of the family. Eileen was accepted into the Nursing Program at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children at age 17. She attained her RN degree in 1945, as well as a degree in Child Study at the University of Toronto in 1946, and subsequently trained prospective nurses at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children. Later, at age 65, she earned a B.S. in Professional Arts from Saint Joseph’s College in Maine.

She met her husband, Abbot Fletcher, in 1950 at a church youth meeting in Toronto and they were married soon thereafter, living briefly in Englewood, New Jersey before settling in Bath and Orr’s Island, Maine. Eileen became an American citizen, but remained highly loyal to her native Canada. Eileen served for many years as a home health nurse, most recently at CHANS where she worked for over 25 years.

Eileen brought her passion and energy to numerous organizations in the Bath-Brunswick-Harpswell region. She served on the boards or in leadership capacities at Friends of Bowdoin College, Bath- Brunswick Mental Health Association, United Way, the Plant Home, the Bath Garden Club, the Bath YMCA, Maine Maritime Museum, AAUW, and numerous other organizations.

Eileen displayed unusual empathy for others. She would often be the first to take new neighbors under her wing and connect them to her family and to the community. She would bring patients from nursing homes back to her home for dinner, and take her children and grandchildren for visits to nursing homes. She would make sure her children played with kids in the neighborhood who were lonely or new to the area. She was genuinely interested in others, and went out of her way to be a mentor and advocate for friends, coworkers and acquaintances. She treated everyone with kindness and respect, regardless of status or background.

She had many talents. She could make spectacular rhubarb and lemon meringue pies over an ancient kerosene stove, and her family is still working to replicate her unique red pepper jelly and her scrumptious meatloaf. The family and crew enjoyed her fish chowder during overnight sailing races on the Gulf of Maine. She was a talented seamstress and knitter, making clothes for her family and canvas work for the boat. She had a remarkable green thumb; night blooming cereus, orchids, poppies and other delicate plants flourished under her care. In her 80s she traveled to Kentucky to compete in a Senior Olympics tennis tournament.

Eileen enjoyed cruising the coast of

Maine on the family sailboat “Majek.” She and Abbot also chartered sailboats in the Caribbean and Tahiti, and cruised on an icebreaker around Baffin Island. In 1983 Eileen joined her son on a double-handed sail from the Virgin Islands to Panama, faithfully standing her watches.

“Ma” as she was named by a grandson, took great pride in and was devoted to her two grandsons. She spent countless days with them and followed their activities closely, taking them on trips to Civil War battlefields, Disneyland, Museums and elsewhere. She was a regular spectator at their sporting events.

Following Abbot’s death in 1999, Eileen found new love with Captain Richard W. Leighton, whom she married in 2007. Eileen and Dick were often described as being like two teenagers in love, and they made the most of their five years together before Dick’s death in 2012.

Eileen is survived by her children, Judith Alice Fletcher Woodbury and her husband Douglas E. Woodbury; Maxwell Abbot Fletcher and his wife Lynnie Bruce; Kristin Louisa Phoebe Hephzibah Fletcher and her husband Craig Sipe; grandchildren Christopher Narraway Fletcher and Rudolph Abbot Fletcher Guliani; and her sister Phyllis E. Agnew and brother Maxwell L. Narraway, both of Toronto and in their 90s. She was predeceased by her sisters Alice M. Lamb and Marion B. Morris, and by a daughter, Corinne Eileen Fletcher who died in infancy in 1954.

Eileen’s family is grateful for the wonderful care provided by the staff at Horizons Living and Rehab Center during her three-year residence, to her CHANS nurses, and to her friends Peg Johnson and Kay Torrey.

A Memorial Service will be held in the summer on Orr’s Island at a date to be determined. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Abbot Fletcher Sailing School, P.O. Box 236, Orr’s Island, ME 04066 (non- Tax Deductible) or to CHANS Home Health and Hospice, 60 Baribeau Drive, Brunswick, ME 04011 (Tax Deductible).