Weda Murch

AUBURN — Weda “Cookie” Eileen Murch, 67, of Auburn, died early Sunday morning, April 19, 2015, following a brief battle with cancer that wasn’t able to defeat her sense of humor that she maintained to the end, at the Androscoggin Hospice House in Auburn, surrounded by her loved ones.

She was born on May 27, 1947, in Lewiston, a daughter of Richard and Lillian May (Holt) Fortier. She attended Norway schools and after multiple knee surgeries as a young woman that prevented her from graduating, she proudly returned to Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School to earn her diploma in 2001.

Cookie worked at the Bridgton Knitting Mill and as a teacher’s assistant in the Oxford Hills Adult Education Program, but her greatest work was as a loving homemaker to her family.
 She was a very talented short story writer, particularly tales of her as a young girl on her Aunt Belle Holt’s farm in North Norway. She also enjoyed drawing, playing cards, dancing, the company of her family and friends, and her membership of the Universalist Church in Norway. She was also an avid collector of Native American and Maine lighthouse items.

Cookie is survived by two daughters, Cindy Foley of Norway and Billie Johnson of Auburn; a son, Richard Murch of Auburn; three grandchildren; a great-grandson; three sisters, Linda Avery of Bridgton, Becky Harmon of Bridgton and Kimmie Fortier of Pennsylvania; a brother, Jim Fortier of Bridgton; her stepmother, Shirley Fortier of Hamilton, N.J.; many nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her parents; her husband, Roger Murch in 2003; a brother, Scotty Fortier; and a granddaughter.

Tributes may be shared with her family at www.oxfordhillsfuneralservices.com.

Funeral services were held Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at Oxford Hills Funeral Services, 1037 Main Street, Oxford. Interment will be at a later date in the Elmvale Cemetery in Waterford.

Gifts may be given in her memory to the Androscoggin Hospice House, 236 Stetson Rd., Auburn, ME 04210.