Lori Cowan

Lori Cowan, born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1929, passed away peacefully at the age of 94 just a few days after Christmas. If her wishes for an afterlife come true, she is now traveling the galaxies in search of the perfect next planet. Lori was loving, smart, determined, hardworking, stylish, and devoted to her family.  Early careers included journalist, ad manager, stay-at-home mom, English professor, and nurse recruiter for Boston City Hospital. Her MBA led to a ceiling breaking Director position in HR at Columbia Gas System that she retired from in 1994. Her favorite vacations were road trips to visit family and beach getaways with her husband Al, flowers were peonies, and she loved to host dinners and pamper houseguests. She and Al enjoyed spending many hours in the kitchen together and were members of a gourmet club for almost 40 years through which they had valued lifelong friends. In those days, birthday dinners were “you imagine it, we will cook it” affairs that we all loved.

Educated at Bowling Green University, Boston College, and Wilmington College, she continued to learn well into her late 80s as a student at the Osher Center.  Born in Ohio, she lived in Florida, Georgia, California, Massachusetts, Virginia, and ultimately Delaware in her life’s travels. Her friendships were of great importance and she made friends wherever she was. Most recently, she lived at the Hamilton House, where being near Trolley Square and central to her family and friends enabled Lori to easily be at the places she enjoyed.

Lori was the kind of mom that spent a lot of time with her children and included them in her life activities. She was serious and taught life lessons when needed, but was tolerant and easy going, and happily let her kids make an 18 hole golf course that covered the yard with holes, sand traps, and water hazards. She was a kid at heart and enjoyed going to amusement parks even though she preferred to stay on the ground. She would take you on car ride adventures where getting lost and finding new things was the sole purpose. She could talk to anyone and was interested in what they were doing, asking a lot of questions was her style. The grandchildren often commented about the inquisition, but she wanted to know absolutely everything about what they were interested in. And when they all migrated to their phones, she quickly learned how to text and could send a string of emojis with the best of them.

Lori was with the family for Christmas dinner, happily eating steak and sipping port at the head of the table. Three days later she left us quickly and peacefully, as she always said she wanted. If anyone was able to will that to happen, it was her. Our memories are full of her well put together outfits, sparkly purse, and frequent dinner outings – Eclipse restaurant was a favorite. Lori enthusiastically lived life, she was confident, capable, and stubborn. Always wanted to do things herself and would learn what was needed to do the next thing of interest. Age was not a factor, she just recently stopped driving and moved to Forwood Manor.

Daughter of Claude and Leno, sister of Claudine and Philip all have preceded her in death. Mourning her loss are Wendy, John (Diane), Carol, Jane, grandchildren Andrew, Bryan (Angie), Vaughn (Emily), Alex, Quentin and Kendall, cousin Beth (Karl), nieces Lorilee, Patty (Ken), Peggy (Paul), nephew Philip and extended families in Illinois, Ohio, New York and Alabama. We will be sure to tell her great granddaughter Effie how much joy she brought to Lori’s life when they met for the first time in October.