Florence Schumacher

95, Fair Oaks

Florence Schumacher was the de facto social director at her assistedliving care home in Fair Oaks, a suburb of Sacramento. She had a welcoming and loving interest in the other residents, and recently had been helping her next- door neighbor recover her speech after the woman suffered a stroke.

“My mom was very much an extrovert,” her son John said.

Schumacher, 95, died on Aug. 17 at Mercy San Juan Hospital in Carmichael from internal bleeding and COVID- 19 complications. She was a 48- year resident of Fair Oaks, the last three at Fair Oaks Care Home. She was a devoted volunteer, keeping the books for Friends Interested in the Severely Handicapped in the Sacramento area. She had a particular interest in that cause, as she provided fulltime care for her late son, Carl, who had Down syndrome.

Schumacher loved cooking, sharing recipes and participating in her potluck club. She and her extended family took summer vacations to Lake Almanor, and she was a longtime parishioner at St. Mel in Fair Oaks, where she helped console families who had lost loved ones. Born Florence Guimond on June 24, 1925, in Fitchburg, Mass., Schumacher traveled to California to help her friend move to the West Coast. She wound up staying after meeting her future husband, Charles Schumacher, who was a mechanic and later worked as a service manager for truck companies. They were married in 1951 and lived in Alameda, Oakland, San Leandro and Stockton before moving to Fair Oaks in 1972.

Schumacher tested positive for the coronavirus three weeks before she died. After requiring supplemental oxygen at first, she seemed to be on the mend.

She took a turn for the worse, however, and died a day after returning to the hospital.

Schumacher was preceded in death by her husband and son. She is survived by four children, John, Donna Blaschke, Denise Johnston and Colette Runquist; three grandchildren; and her sister, Lorraine McHale of Ayer, Mass.