Jeanne Margaret (Campeau) Greenwald of Stow passed away peacefully on Sept. 20, 2023, just six days short of her 98th birthday. She leaves behind sons Patrick (Becky), Robert (Barbara), Tom (Mary); Daughters Mimi (Gary) Denton, Elaine Girard (Fred, d.), Kay (Ron) Winer, Meg (Perry) Hahn, and LouAnne Greenwald; as well as 13 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. She is also survived by brother Raymond Campeau and sister Susan Packey.

Cremation has taken place. The family will receive friends at the Dunn-Quigley Stow Chapel (3333 Kent Road) on Thursday, Sept. 28, from 5-8pm. Mass of Christian Burial will be on Friday Sept. 29 at Holy Family Catholic Church, Stow, at 12pm. Inurnment will follow at Stow Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the following: Good Neighbors, Saint Vincent de Paul Society or the Holy Family Parish Endowment Fund.

Jeanne was born on Sept. 26, 1925 in Alliance, Ohio to her parents Gertrude and Edward Campeau, the first of seven children. After graduating from Alliance High School in 1943, she enrolled in the School of Nursing at St. John's Hospital in Cleveland, under the newly-established Cadet Nurse Corps. Upon completion of nurse's training and state certification, she was hired by St. John's Hospital as head nurse in the Labor and Delivery Ward.

In 1946, having been introduced by one of her fellow nurses, she agreed to a blind date with a young Navy veteran named Joe Greenwald. The chemistry turned out to be perfect, and they decided to marry in 1948. She continued working at St. John's until 1949, when SHE became a patient, giving birth to her first child. And that was the beginning of a long sabbatical of childbirth and child-rearing that brought seven more children into the world between 1950 – 1965. By 1958 Joe and Jeanne had decided to move their growing family into a bigger home with a spacious yard in Stow.

While the children attended Holy Family School, Jeanne became involved in parish organizations, such as the Mission Circle and the Altar and Rosary Society. She also served as a volunteer in the school's Brownie and Girl Scout programs. In later years she joined the Holy Family Church Choir and the Stow Women's Club, and performed volunteer work for Children's Hospital.

In the early 70's, her youngest child now in school, Jeanne decided to re-enter the nursing profession. After completing refresher coursework and re-certification she worked in Labor and Delivery at Green Cross Hospital in Cuyahoga Falls, and years later at Rockynol Nursing Home in Akron before finally retiring.

In retirement she enjoyed traveling, planting and tending her flower gardens, jigsaw puzzling and gathering socially with friends and family. In 2007 she enrolled in a writing program at Stow Library and produced a collection of essays and stories of her life, which she had printed and bound. She presented each of her children with a copy on Christmas of 2007.

In addition to that booklet, there are many other tangible things that Jeanne, our mother, passed on to us: photographs, hand written notes and letters, recipes–those objects and documents of family life that our memories wrap around like a ribbon. And then there are also the less tangible things she imparted to her children. She possessed an unwavering faith in God, a personal moral compass, a code of values both spiritual and practical. She had a delightful sense of humor, a keen observance of the contradictions in human behavior, and an optimism infused by her sense that the world is a good place. She appreciated the beauty around her, and made her own contributions to it. She brought to her life a curiosity and an eagerness to learn. These are the qualities and traits that shaped us as children, then teenagers, then adults. Our mother was both ordinary and extraordinary. She embraced her role and her family and extended family with conviction, and in so doing she gave so much of herself. We are grieving. We are grateful. We are blessed.