Norma K. Dumont

Norma K. Dumont was a supremely talented visual artist and dearly loved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend. She was a lover of books but not movies or television. She obtained a license, but not once did she drive. In the 1970s, she burdened her children with a meat-, dairy- and sugar-free diet of carob, whole wheat bread and tofu. Eventually, however, she became a true foodie with a late-in-life habit of dense ice cream and fine dark chocolate. Norma took to the internet surprisingly well and would peruse the web for restaurant reviews which often led to a family meal at a restaurant that she had read about.

Norma was born on May 26, 1937. She grew up an only child in the Bronx, New York. She graduated from LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and then Cornell University before marrying Matthew P. Dumont at the ripe young age of 20 and supporting her new husband through medical school. During the time she was raising her three young children, her art went on hiatus until one evening in the early 1970s her husband arrived home with a gift. It was a box of paints and thus, her career in art was reborn. From that moment on, Norma was a dedicated and prolific visual artist: over the course of her artistic life, she worked in a wide variety of mediums including oils, wood, clay, colored pencils, handmade paper, woven wire, wax relief and printmaking.

Norma and Matthew enjoyed repeated trips to Europe once their children were grown. They especially loved October trips to Tuscany to help their eldest with his olive harvest. Norma was intelligent and extremely well-read but more than that, she was an observer of life. She saw beauty where most would not stop to look: in the pattern of a worn hardwood floor or in the abandoned car parts resting in a front yard. She was a lover of good sunlight, especially coming through the windows of her home. She did not suffer fools and would make her views abundantly clear whether you wanted to hear them or not. She was blunt, funny, known to be quite the punster and also extremely generous. She was a dear friend to those few she let into her inner circle. To her husband, she was a constant companion for almost 65 years.

When the pandemic curtailed their cultural and social activities, Norma could often be seen sitting in her front yard greeting passersby while simultaneously directing her daughter to move a plant here or pull a weed there. It was her own version of New York City stoop sitting in a suburb of Boston. Norma passed away after a brief illness on Wednesday, June 8th, leaving an unfillable gaping space in the lives of her family: her husband Matthew; her three children Jonathan (Nina Eaton) of Rome, Italy, Charlotte (Anita Mercado) and Dora of Massachusetts; and her two beloved granddaughters, Sylvie and Lucie of London, England.

We love you Norma and will miss you forever.