Laura Fae McLean
Mystic — Laura Fae McLean, 99, died peacefully Aug. 5, 2020, in Mystic, at her home in StoneRidge. Laura Fae was born in Lakeport, Calif., to the Rev. Arthur N. and Vesper Martin. When she was still a baby, her family relocated to Rifle and then Windsor, Colo., and Laura Fae and her siblings, Bob and Ruth, grew up as part of these loving and close-knit communities full of friends and watchful neighbors. The mountains were her playground and her sanctuary, and while she was a happily transplanted Easterner, her love of Colorado never wavered.
Laura Fae enjoyed a lifelong love of learning and classical music, particularly opera. She was an accomplished singer and an excellent student. As a teenager, she performed on the local radio station and in 1939, she graduated from Windsor High School as valedictorian of her class. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Denver in 1943 and after teaching for a short period, was accepted into the Graduate Nursing Program at Yale University. It was at Yale that she met and fell for a handsome medical student, Charles McLean. Charles and Laura Fae were married in January 1946, just a few months before the Army shipped him overseas to the Philippines and Korea. While Charles was gone, Laura Fae returned to her family in Colorado where she taught elementary school English.
In 1949, the couple welcomed their firstborn son Chuck, and settled in Connecticut where Charles was a medical resident. In 1952, Charles was named a Cardiopulmonary Fellow at Buffalo General Hospital, in Buffalo, N.Y., and daughter Patti joined the family. In 1953, the family returned to Wethersfield, when Charles began his career as a cardiologist at Hartford Hospital. In 1960, the family welcomed son Jimmy and they moved to Glastonbury where they lived for 45 years. Although a busy mother, Laura Fae immersed herself in numerous volunteer activities in Glastonbury, and when Jimmy reached school age, she became a special education teacher at Academy Junior High. Laura Fae’s nurturing and creative teaching style endeared her to her students, and several stayed close to her for years after she retired. In 1980, Laura Fae and Charles bought a summer home in East Dennis, Mass. on Cape Cod Bay, which brought them and the whole family much joy for more than 25 years.
Laura Fae’s intellectual curiosity and creativity were well known and much appreciated by her family and friends. She was a prolific poet with a great sense of humor. Her poems and riddles could be found at any time, in any place, for occasions that didn’t even exist until she memorialized them in verse. She also loved animals and was known at StoneRidge as “The Cat Lady” after she created PetPrints, a newsletter that featured stories about StoneRidge’s four-legged residents.
Above all, Laura Fae loved her family and her dear friends. She always put others first, and she formed deep and lasting relationships. She was a real presence, and she will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her.
She is survived by her daughter Patti and husband Tom Wind of Mystic; son Jim, and his wife Deb of Golden, Colo.; grandsons, Colin of Golden, Colo., and Slater of San Francisco, Calif.; and her nieces, Marla Kitchell and Patty Meismer and their families. She was predeceased by her siblings; her beloved husband Charles; her dear son Chuck; and numerous much-loved pets.
Once they are able to travel safely, the family plans to gather for a memorial in Colorado where Laura Fae’s ashes will forever rest among family and friends in the mountains she loved so much.
While Laura Fae regularly contributed to several charities that supported people and animals in need, we know she would especially appreciate memorial contributions to any chapter of the ALS Association in honor of her son Charles M. McLean.
The family would also like to thank the dedicated and caring professionals at StoneRidge’s TopSail Assisted Living Facility, as well as Hartford HealthCare at Home Hospice, and the individual caregivers who treated our mother like family and became our friends. They were so kind and compassionate during these challenging times and we will forever be grateful.