Margaret Kondrup ... longtime Rochester 1st-grade teacher; at 84

MILTON - Margaret Kondrup of Milton died peacefully with her family holding her hands at Bellamy Fields in Dover on July 21, 2023, She was 84 years young.

Margaret "Maggie" was born to Ivan Taylor and Myrtle Moody (Taylor) of Glen in 1938.

She was predeceased by her brother Fred, sister Carolyn and husband Richard. A small shout out to her pet pig Mustard Eddie Freddie Cleopatra as she loved to bring him up. No one is sure if it was a boy or girl pig.

She is survived by her brother Paul Taylor of Intervale, foster brother Carrol in Haverhill and her three sons. Damon, David and Danny with their spouses Staci, Meagan, Naoko. It is rumored that Damon was her favorite. Nine grandchildren (Chihiro, Katarina, Killian, Liam, Kameron, Ryu, Amber, Misaki, and Kylie) and many nieces and nephews she was extremely fond of. A special shoutout to her adopted students and relatives at Bellamy Fields. They were phenomenal in assisting her through her final world tour and the family is very appreciative.

Maggie was always a devoted Christian and often went to different services around the area just to mix it up over the years. The Nute Ridge Bible Chapel was her last favorite.

Maggie graduated at the higher end of her class in Bartlett (graduating class of 11 seniors) and proceeded to get her bachelor's from Barrington College in Rhode Island that set her off on a 34-year teaching career in Rochester. Maggie was made for teaching first-graders. We still have her former students tell us she was their favorite teacher decades on. She finally called it a career when the powers that be told her she could no longer hug her students. "Kids need hugs and discipline", she would say. Her own boys got more of the later side of that equation.

Somehow, along with her storied teaching career, she managed to get married to the love of her life Richard and have three amazing boys, all while embarking on trips around the world.

We lost count of the countries she has visited and hopefully Interpol has as well. Maggie volunteered on archaeological digs in Switzerland for a Viking boat, Tonga to study giant clams and I think she dug something up in Egypt. She loved connecting to the local people and they seemed to love her back judging by all the gifts she had accumulated.

In her retirement years she would love to go antiquing and yard sale'ing to decorate her barn house. She daily went out to eat with friends. One of her favorite sayings was that she "Only had a kitchen because it came with the house". Maggie loved to drive her golf cart around the property with the grandkids in tow. She only lost one occasionally.

She liked to mow the fields on her beloved tractor. She was still driving the tractor into her 80s until one of the mean sons took the keys away after she drove it into the garage on fire. She said she didn't want me to have to work on it out in the field, so she raced it into the garage at top speed. That's kind of the same way she drove her car also. Never knew anybody who got more warnings and never a ticket than her.

Mom loved flowers and would pick wild ones for the barn house. Particularly purple ones as that is her favorite color. But she hated dandelions. I'm not sure if she hated yellow? She would hand pluck a thousand of them in 90 degree heat in her 70s and put anybody to shame that tried to keep up and passed out face down in the dandelions like a wimp.