Ellen Totas Turnbull

May 18, 1936 - January 20, 2021

Ellen Totas Turnbull passed away in her sleep on January 20, 2021. She was born on May 18, 1936 in Bristol, New Hampshire, the only child of George and Sandra Totas, owners of the Bristol Diner and then Sandy’s Restaurant, known to locals as “The Barbecue.” Ellen graduated from Bristol High School in 1954, went to Fisher Junior College on Beacon Street in Boston, and began her professional life as a secretary in the Dean’s Office at Dartmouth College, where Jack Turnbull, the love of her life, was an undergraduate. In those days of typewriters and carbon paper, she was proud of the fact that in her two years there, the Dean returned only two memos to her desk with typographical errors. On June 14, 1958, she and Jack were married, and as his work at IBM progressed, they lived in Poughkeepsie, NY, Reston, VA, and Shelburne, VT, before retiring to Charlottesville, VA in 1993. They had two children, Stephen John (born in 1960) and Catherine Lynn (born in 1962). Ellen was never idle. Over the years of parenting and working, the list of organizations with whom she volunteered or was employed included: The Girl Scouts; The Reston Chorale; Mary Kay Cosmetics; Doncaster Clothing; The First United Methodist Church of Shelburne; Aldersgate United Methodist Church of Charlottesville; The University of Vermont; and Stephen Ministries. She had great taste, made friends easily, loved to sing, could play piano by ear, and derived great joy from bestowing gifts. When her physician told her in late 2020 that an echocardiogram showed her heart was stiffening with age, her daughter remarked that that was a metaphor no one would ever apply, for Ellen embodied the advice of Mother Teresa to “do small things with great love.” Fate, however, is sometimes unfair: during the final 30 years of her life, Ellen was faced with repeated challenges to her physical and mental health; she and Jack bravely weathered each painful event in its turn. There is nothing like depression to teach us about death and resurrection. Ellen Turnbull was a woman of great affection and compassionate humility. Her generosity is perhaps her greatest legacy, so if you wish to make a gesture in her memory, we encourage you to give a gift to a person or an organization you love. Among those who grieve her loss are her husband of 62 years, Jack Turnbull; her children, Steve and Catherine; her son-in-law, Jeff Wescott; and her granddaughters, Hannah Wescott, Clare Wescott, Elyssa (Jon) Klaasen, and Analei Turnbull. Said the writer Sarah Orne Jewett, “In some way our present state ministers to the higher condition to which we are coming…. We are not certain what an angel might be; but the life in us now will be necessary to the making of one by and by.” Please share a memory with Ellen’s family by visiting her tribute page at www.reynolds-jonkhoff.com. The Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home and Cremation Services is serving the family.