Amelia (Amy) Harrison Rowe

Amelia (Amy) Harrison Rowe, 68, of Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, died in the early hours of February 22, after living for many years with Parkinson's disease. She was born June 17, 1952, in Englewood, New Jersey, to Mary Edna Harber Harrison and Malcolm (Bud) Reeve Harrison.

Amy was a lifelong lover of the written word. She attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where she studied English and edited the school paper. A vision in the snow, she left a young William (Bill) Vandervort Rowe lovestruck one fateful winter's day. After graduation in 1974, Amy and Bill married the following year, and the couple moved to Toronto, where they attended the Institute for Christian Studies. Amy studied aesthetics and literature. They then settled in Pittsburgh, where Amy worked as a copywriter and gave birth to their son, Michael (Mike) Harrison Rowe in 1982, before moving to Edmonton, where Amy taught writing classes and gave birth to their second son, James Wyant Rowe, in 1985. The character of her sons is a testament to Amy's generosity, love, and yes, some discipline. Who can blame her, with two sons and a husband to raise: even the dog and all but one cat were boys. The family moved to Toronto before settling in Clarks Summit in 1990.

There Amy worked as a writer and editor. For many years, until 2012, she worked as the communications coordinator for the Northeast Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center. Amy was passionate about this work and proud to do it.

Amy loved music and liked to sing. She liked good television shows but also bad television shows. A passionate reader, Amy loved Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien, Herman Melville's Moby Dick , and Shakespeare, once attending plays in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Globe itself. She famously doodled snails here and there, drawings that can still be found today if you know where to look.

Parkinson's took much from Amy in later years, yet she remained steadfastly herself. She lived with the difficulties of her condition with the support of her husband, sons, family, and friends and never lost her dignity or sense of humor. She required a wheelchair but still danced at James's wedding. Even when her memory deteriorated, she continued to dominate at Trivial Pursuit and could still call to mind events from her or her sons' childhoods. Though robbed by her condition of the ability to smile, her laugh persisted; if you had the pleasure of knowing her, you can hear it now. She was a woman of singular good humor who expressed her love often and without reserve.

Amy is survived by her husband, Bill; her son, Michael, and his partner, Giuliana Livingston Pinto; her son, James, his spouse, Alexis (Ali) Marie Butzner, and their son, Amy's beloved grandson, Cyril (Cy) Wyant Rowe. She will be missed very much—and forever.

No memorial services are planned at this time. Donations in Amy's name to the American Parkinson Disease Association or the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research would be appreciated.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the Lawrence E. Young Funeral Home and Cremation Services Inc., 418 S. State Street, Clarks Summit.