Celeste Louise Opfell

 Celeste L. Opfell, 89, of Thompson, Ohio, died peacefully in her home on Thursday, May 3, 2018.

Celeste Wall was born January 3, 1929, in Mission, Texas, the middle of three daughters of Floyd and Alice (Vollmer) Wall.  Floyd was a restless entrepreneur, and while growing up, her family moved 14 times to 9 different states.  Celeste was her father's helper and started working with him from the age of six, when she assisted in his dime store. During her youth, she helped out in his luncheonette, his tire shop and worked with him in a chicken factory.  She lived in the adult world at an early age and had little time to be a child.  She was a hardworking and serious teenager. She enjoyed schoolwork and was the Valedictorian of her high school class. She graduated from the University of Iowa School of Nursing in 1950, where she met her husband of 67 years, James Opfell.  Eleven years and three children later, Celeste went back to school to earn her BS in nursing education, and graduated from the  Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William and Mary in 1963. James' professional career as a chemical engineer took the family to live in several states, where Celeste continued her career in nursing and had two more children.  Over her 38-year career, Celeste held many professional positions including Director of Inservice Education at Petersburg General Hospital in Virginia, Nursing Instructor at Kent State University, Director of Nursing Education at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, and Supervisor of Home Health Services at Hunterdon Medical Center in New Jersey. 

Upon their retirement in 1987, Celeste and James moved to Thompson, Ohio and built a house with their son Tom on a fruit farm that they had purchased while living in that area years earlier.  Celeste enjoyed working outdoors.  In addition to caring for the orchards, with each passing year, she increased the number of flower beds on the property.  Hardworking Celeste was trimming trees and splitting firewood into her 70s.  In 1990, Celeste's 90-year-old mother came to live with her and James, and they took excellent care of her until she passed away in 1998.  This labor of love became increasingly difficult, as her mother was bedridden the last four years of her life and was unable to do anything for herself.  Celeste always said that she felt honored to have been able to do this for her mother. 

Celeste was a loving and patient mother to her five children, instilling in them her values of fairness, compassion, hard work, education, and respect for all people - including oneself!  She really enjoyed experiencing through her children the childhood that she had missed.  She was pragmatic, had good common sense, as well as a good sense of humor! She was easily motivated and executed any plan she would devise for herself.  She enjoyed many outdoor adventures with her family like swimming, hiking, camping, traveling, and gardening.  She was a kind and compassionate friend, always willing to lend a hand or an ear to help her friends. She was not religious, but she enjoyed studying religion.  She was an active member of the East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Kirtland, Ohio, and as co-historian with James, dedicated many months to writing the history of their church. Celeste enjoyed writing and wrote the life story of her parents, Floyd and Alice, her own life story, and assisted her husband in writing his life story. Celeste had an adventurous and exciting, loving and challenging, always interesting life, and through it all, believed in always looking on the bright side, saying frequently: "what can we learn from this?"

She is survived by her husband of 67 years James Edward Opfell, three daughters: Connie Opfell, LeighAnn Griffith (Rich Posmontier), Pamela Hughes (Damian); two sons: Edward Opfell and Thomas Opfell (Judy); 8 grandchildren James, Elizabeth, Rachael, Dylan, Kaitlyn, Jackson, Andrew and Russell; and 9 nieces and nephews.
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