Obituary for Helen V. Desmond
Helen Vician Desmond, aged 96, of Litchfield, NH, died on Wednesday, July 1, 2020.
Helen was born on October 15, 1923 and raised in Proctor, VT by her loving parents, Paul and Helen Vician, who arrived in the United States from what is now Slovakia, seeking a better life for themselves and their children.
After graduating high school at the start of World War II Helen left small town Vermont to move to New York City to pursue a career in modeling. Although the modeling was sidelined she made lifelong friends there while working as a hostess at the Lexington Hotel and had many adventures including dancing on table tops and, with her friends, being squired around town by a Saudi Prince and his entourage when they came to visit during the time the United Nations was being established.
After the war Helen moved to Washington, D.C. where she met Lawrence Desmond. He arrived to the apartment she shared with multiple roommates that night for blind date with one of them but took one look at Helen and promptly ignored his date and pursued Helen relentlessly until she gave in and said yes to a proper date. They married in September 1952 and went on to have three children over the next ten years: Tim, Laurie and Connie, all almost exactly 5 years apart. Larry died in a car accident in 1968 leaving Helen to raise her three children on her own, which she did most wonderfully.
Helen provided a deep and unconditional love not only for her children but for all of those fortunate to know her. Her family was her joy and she was a great and loving friend. Helen had seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren who also were the beneficiaries of her deep love and caring for them. She had many different titles; to her three sets of grandchildren she was known respectively as “Grandma”, “Bahma” and “Granny”.
Helen loved to travel with her friends, both in this country and abroad and she was always up to experience new adventures. She deeply cared about others and left her loving mark on all who were a part of her life. For several years she and some of her childhood Vermont friends would spend a couple of Winter months in Florida and came to be known as the other “Golden Girls”. During Summer evenings at home she could often be found enjoying a glass of wine while marveling at the beautiful countryside and sunsets in her own backyard.
She will be deeply missed but the legacy of her unconditional love and caring that she brought to this world will live on in her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She left this world a better place for having been in it.
In addition to her parents, Paul and Helen Vician, Helen was pre-deceased by her brother Paul Vician. She leaves behind her son Tim Deschenes-Desmond, his wife Anita and their two children, Caitlin Deschenes-Desmond and her husband Bryan McGrew, and Conor Deschenes-Desmond, his wife Renae and their two children Lewis and Lydia; her daughter Laurie Scafidi, her husband Tony and their children Lexie, Sophie and Jake; and her daughter Connie Mooney, her husband David and their children Brendan and Abigail.
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Home Health and Hospice Care, Merrimack, NH/ www.hhc.org
Helen was born on October 15, 1923 and raised in Proctor, VT by her loving parents, Paul and Helen Vician, who arrived in the United States from what is now Slovakia, seeking a better life for themselves and their children.
After graduating high school at the start of World War II Helen left small town Vermont to move to New York City to pursue a career in modeling. Although the modeling was sidelined she made lifelong friends there while working as a hostess at the Lexington Hotel and had many adventures including dancing on table tops and, with her friends, being squired around town by a Saudi Prince and his entourage when they came to visit during the time the United Nations was being established.
After the war Helen moved to Washington, D.C. where she met Lawrence Desmond. He arrived to the apartment she shared with multiple roommates that night for blind date with one of them but took one look at Helen and promptly ignored his date and pursued Helen relentlessly until she gave in and said yes to a proper date. They married in September 1952 and went on to have three children over the next ten years: Tim, Laurie and Connie, all almost exactly 5 years apart. Larry died in a car accident in 1968 leaving Helen to raise her three children on her own, which she did most wonderfully.
Helen provided a deep and unconditional love not only for her children but for all of those fortunate to know her. Her family was her joy and she was a great and loving friend. Helen had seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren who also were the beneficiaries of her deep love and caring for them. She had many different titles; to her three sets of grandchildren she was known respectively as “Grandma”, “Bahma” and “Granny”.
Helen loved to travel with her friends, both in this country and abroad and she was always up to experience new adventures. She deeply cared about others and left her loving mark on all who were a part of her life. For several years she and some of her childhood Vermont friends would spend a couple of Winter months in Florida and came to be known as the other “Golden Girls”. During Summer evenings at home she could often be found enjoying a glass of wine while marveling at the beautiful countryside and sunsets in her own backyard.
She will be deeply missed but the legacy of her unconditional love and caring that she brought to this world will live on in her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She left this world a better place for having been in it.
In addition to her parents, Paul and Helen Vician, Helen was pre-deceased by her brother Paul Vician. She leaves behind her son Tim Deschenes-Desmond, his wife Anita and their two children, Caitlin Deschenes-Desmond and her husband Bryan McGrew, and Conor Deschenes-Desmond, his wife Renae and their two children Lewis and Lydia; her daughter Laurie Scafidi, her husband Tony and their children Lexie, Sophie and Jake; and her daughter Connie Mooney, her husband David and their children Brendan and Abigail.
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Home Health and Hospice Care, Merrimack, NH/ www.hhc.org