Debbie Greeley had three sons of her own, but the number of children she helped raise in the Wilton area over two decades is too high to get an exact count.
For 20 years, she ran The Greeley School, a preschool program in the Wilton home she shared with her husband Randy and their sons Christopher, Brendon and Andrew. And for Randy it was easy to see why Greeley chose to study early childhood development at Keene State College and built a school from the ground up.
“She just had this way with kids. She was a kid magnet,” Randy said. “You could tell she had a motherly instinct.”
Greeley loved being a teacher and nurturing young children during their most impressionable years. And it was one of most difficult decisions of her life to close down the school in 2019, when her diagnosis with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – or ALS – made it impossible to keep going.
“She was heartbroken over that,” Randy said.
On June 22, Greeley lost her two-year battle with ALS at the age of 59 in the comforts of the Wilton home that her husband grew up in and they had shared for their 36-plus years of marriage.
Greeley and Randy both went to Keene State, just at different times. Randy said he met his future wife during a visit to see a friend. Two years later they were married. Greeley was a single mom when he met her, something he admired about her. He likes to think that experience set her on the path to helping others.
That included the children at her school, who Greeley taught how to read, say their ABCs and learn to count. She was the kind of teacher that fostered her student’s interests and helped them flourish, something that Linda LaDouceur saw firsthand. As the founder of the Whiting Hill School in Wilton, LaDouceur had a number of students come from The Greeley School and each one was ahead of where they needed to be going into first grade.
“The ones she sent to me were so well prepared,” LaDouceur said. “And it’s because they had her.”
Greeley ran her school for so long that some of her first students eventually brought their own children back for her to teach.
For more than 10 years, Greeley served as an EMT with what at the time was known as the Wilton-Lyndeborough-Temple Ambulance. Randy said his wife came to him and expressed interest in getting certified so over the course of the summer they both learned the “900-page book” required of the training.
“I think she always had an inclining to become a doctor, had an interest in medicine,” Randy said.
Ellen Leavitt-Grossman said her longtime friend had a certain quality that just lent itself to working as an EMT.
“She was very compassionate,” Leavitt-Grossman said. “Compassion is wonderful because sometimes all you need to do is hold someone’s hand on the way to the hospital.” The two met when Leavitt-Grossman attended training classes with her mother Mary, who served on the ambulance for more than two decades. She and Greeley worked together for a short time and remained close friends for decades.
There are many things Leavitt-Grossman will miss about Greeley, but at top of the list?
“Her smile would light up a room,” she said. “If you ever had a bad day, all you had to do was go see her.” There were also the hugs and just about everything about her longtime friend.
“She’ll be greatly missed by everybody,” Leavitt-Grossman said. “But she’s at peace now, no more suffering.”
Greeley also volunteered at the Wilton Open Cupboard Pantry senior dinners, where she would shop for and help cook the meals. LaDouceur, who runs the pantry with her husband Roger, remembers how Greeley always wanted the monthly senior get-togethers to be just right.
“She felt the seniors coming deserved to have it be special,” LaDouceur said. “Her whole heart was in it.”
LaDouceur said she enjoyed the time spent with Greeley, recognizing her passion for community.
“But I wish now that I knew her better,” she said. “I think she was an extraordinary person.”
Leavitt-Grossman remembers how Greeley would intersect her teaching career and EMT work by bringing the ambulance to the school for the kids to climb around in and see that it’s not so scary, just in case they ever had to go in one.
She said that Greeley didn’t initially share her diagnosis with many people, including Leavitt-Grossman. But she looks back at her friend’s fight with ALS knowing she took everything in stride.
“She lived her life to the fullest,” Leavitt-Grossman said.
Randy said the initial diagnosis came with a three to five year life expectancy “but we were planning on beating that.” After all, Greeley had already beat cancer twice. The diagnosis came after she had an ailment known as drop foot, which is an early indicator for ALS.
It was not easy to process, especially since there’s no known cure which offers up very little in terms of hope.
“But she kept her spirits up,” Randy said. Greeley leaned on her faith as she continued to live the life she wanted. “The saving grace is we do have that faith.” He said things really started to change in the last couple weeks before her passing.
“You fight it and live your life the best you can for as long as you can,” Randy said.
Greeley became a justice of the peace at the request of her niece and then performed more than a handful of marriages, Randy said. The Greeleys went on two mission trips with Team Acts, a local faith-based organization founded to help those affected by natural disasters. Randy said both their trips were to Panama City, Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael to help residents rebuild their lives.
“She said let’s go help somebody rebuild their home,” Randy said.
On the way home from one of the trips, Randy remembers his wife being pulled out of the security line because of gifted candles in her bag., which led to quite a few laughs. In the last decade-plus, Greeley took a liking to the restoration of vintage furniture, going to yard sales to see what she could find.
Randy called his wife “steady as a rock.”
“She was the one with the ideas, the one who pushed for everything,” he said. “I was her support system, but she was the leader.”
A memorial service for Greeley will be held on Saturday at noon at Renew Church in Hancock. All are welcome to attend and it will also be livestreamed on Renew Church’s Facebook page.