Maxine Smith Hall

Maxine Smith Hall, 79, passed away quietly at the Community Hospice MacGraw center on Friday, June 17, 2016 after a three year battle with colon, liver and bladder cancer. She took on this disease with a can do attitude and planned to be here long after the oncologist’s initial diagnosis of 3-5 years. She had things to do, like watching her great grand-daughter graduate from high school, get married and have children of her own and no one was going to tell Maxine she was not going to be around to see it all.

Maxine was born and grew up in Gray Georgia with her brother and three sisters; Gussie Agnes, Betty xx and Jimmie . She lived in Georgia until her mid-twenties, when she married James and eventually moved to Florida where she raised her three children; Gail, Jamie and Yvonne. She has three grandchildren, Stephanie, Laura and Nicholas. As with everything else she did, she also raised a phenomenal great grandchild; Michaela. They were inseparable until the end. While her children were not all born in Florida, they were all raised and grew up in Jacksonville Florida and continue to reside here where she could see them frequently. She also had four step children she helped raise; Danny, Frankie, Billy and Dawn. By now you know that this was a strong, busy, organized woman! Who wouldn’t be with all this in tow!

Maxine was a tough cookie and expected allot out of those who knew and loved her and she gave it back ten-fold. She was a stay at home mother while raising her three children and volunteered most of her time and energy at St. Paul’s Catholic in those early years. She made the majority of the girl’s uniforms at the school, volunteered in the school, church and rectory to ensure an excellent Christian education for her children. She needed to be here to talk to her baby sister, Gussie Tritch every night on the phone and make sure she was okay. She did this with most of her siblings and her two daughters on a regular basis and you knew you were in trouble if you had not spoken to her in two days.

You see, Maxine needed to make sure we knew she was going to be her for all of us. To that end, she was always busy, vigorously cleaning house to make sure it was always in order, planting flowers, attending church, and being there for her friends at her cancer survivor’s meetings regularly. She did three straight years of chemo and always came out of it with a good attitude. So as you can imagine, we were all quite surprised to see her go, which was sudden in the end. She fought the biggest battle of her life and did so with grace, dignity and as many friends as any one person can touch in almost 80 years.

A celebration of Maxine’s life will be held at 12:00 Saturday, June 25, 2016 at Community Presbyterian Church, 150 Sherry Dr., Atlantic Beach, FL 32233 with a reception immediately following the service. Private interment will be held in Chapel Hills Memory Gardens.

Arrangements by Haradge-Giddens Chapel Hills Funeral Home, Jacksonville. www.hardage-giddenschapelhills.com