A graveside service for Helen Pietila, who passed away on August 28, 2020, will be held on Saturday, May 8, 2021, at 10 a.m., at the Dunbar Cemetery, in Nobleboro. Masks and social distancing are required.

Halls of Waldoboro has care of the arrangements.

NOBLEBORO — Helen G. Spear Donnell Pietila was born on October 21, 1921 in Rockland, Maine to Wallace and Maude Cummings Spear. She lived in Rockland until she was 12 years old.

In 1933 the family moved to the farm on Upper East Pond Road in Nobleboro due to health issues for her brother Herbert Spear. That is when the Spear Farm was established.

She married Chester Donnell in 1940 and was widowed in 1958, being left to raise six children ranging from the ages of 6 months to 15 years.

Helen first worked at the Hood Egg Plant in Waldoboro and then worked at the Sylvania Plant for 25 years. She retired from Sylvania to help take care of her mother.

Helen married Sulo Pietila in 1963 and was widowed once again in 1994. At the point she spent part of her winters with her daughters Pat Russell in San Augustine, Texas and Pam Edwards in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Helen lived in the home that she moved into when she married Chester in 1940, and lived there until she moved to Cove’s Edge in the fall of 2018.

She was predeceased by her father, Wallace E. Spear; mother Maude C. Spear; brother, Herbert Spear; and both husbands.

She is survived by her six children, Sandra and Gordon Webster of Waldoboro, Maine, Pat and Harron Russell of San Augustine, Texas, Pam and David Edwards of Nobleboro, Maine, Jackie Blanchett of Waldoboro, Maine, Jeff and Sue Donnell of Houston, Texas and Debra and Dickie Levensaler of Nobleboro, Maine. She also leaves a step-son that she raised from the age of 5, Sulo (Buddy) Pietila of Nobleboro, Maine.

Helen leaves 14 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren who were the joy of her life. Her family and her many friends were what she lived for and treated them all with unconditional love. They were the joy in her wonderful life.

Her favorite thing in the world was to bake and feed people. You never left her home without baked goods and usually her donuts.

In her retirement years she loved to volunteer and did so at Miles Hospital, now known as Lincoln Healthcare, Hospice, and at several Green Elder Care homes in the area.

She will be greatly missed by her family and friends but she always said, “Do not mourn me as I have had a wonderful life and do not send me flowers when I have passed, I want the flowers when I am alive and can enjoy them.”

There will be no services at this time because of COVID.

In the spring there will be a family only graveside service. Because of her wishes there will be a party at Helen’s house on East Pond Road in Nobleboro in the spring of 2021. We hope by then the COVID problem will be behind us.

Our thanks to Cove’s Edge nursing home for the wonderful care they provided our mother for the last two years of her life. She thought of them as family and they treated us, her four girls, as family.

At Helen’s request, memorial contributions can be made in her name to the North Nobleboro Community Association. They can be sent to Mitchell Welman, Treasurer, 573 East Pond Road, Nobleboro, ME 04555.

Hall’s of Waldoboro has care of the arrangements. For online condolences visit www.hallfuneralhomes.com