Mary Anne (Middlemas) Gilmore lived from Aug. 11, 1947, until Dec. 11, 2024. She died of heart failure although her heart never failed her.

She was preceded in death by her parents Cecilia and John Middlemas, her brother David, and her sister Sue Ellen.

She is survived by her siblings John, Celia and Maile; her children Seth, Brennan and Meredyth (son-in-law Steven Hall); her grandchildren Michael and Meridian Hall; and her husband of 57 years, Lowry Michael Gilmore.

In lieu of a standard obituary she asked friends to read the following poem:

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ride

thinking the bus will never stop,

the passengers eating maize and chicken

will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness

you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho

lies dead by the side of the road.

You must see how this could be you,

how he too was someone

who journeyed through the night with plans

and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows

and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

only kindness that ties your shoes

and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,

only kindness that raises its head

from the crowd of the world to say

It is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you everywhere

like a shadow or a friend.

Naomi Shihab Nye

Mary Anne was a strong supporter of the Rockbridge Area Conservation Council and was a registered anatomical donor to the University of Virginia Medical Center. She was a teacher, a social worker in hospitals and prisons, and a beloved mother and grandmother. She lived her life always thinking of how she could help others.

At a later date her family will celebrate her life at Ka’ena Point on Oahu, Hawaii.