Margaret P. Bushey

Margaret P. Bushey “Peg”   Margaret “Peg” Joyce (Piper) Bushey peacefully departed this world surrounded by her loving family on March 9 after a long life of service to those living with mental illness in the Rochester area. She entered this wide world on August 13, 1938 to parents Ralph S. and Margaret A. Piper, and older sister Patricia. Peg faced obstacles and opportunities with tenacity, quick thinking, and the grace to listen. These qualities quickly garnered her the nickname “Rock of Gibraltar” among her co-workers at Strong Memorial/University of Rochester during her fifty years of continuous service there. Once hired in 1962 as a staff nurse in the psychiatric department, she never wanted to leave and grew within the organization. Margaret became a psychiatric nurse clinician and community mental health nurse at the Strong Memorial Hospital Community Mental Health Center (1972). Twenty years into her service (1982), Peg became a primary therapist, team lead,and then director of the Continuing Treatment Day Program in the Extended Care Clinic  where she served until her retirement . She loved going to work each day to serve those in the Rochester community with mental illness where she impacted the lives of thousands. As you can tell, Peg never liked to sit still…ever.   Through all her work accomplishments, Peg maintained a work-life balance. She loved her family (including pets) and always made time to vacation at the Cape Vincent cottage, which her husband Frank and her built in the 1960’s. Peg always made record time in traveling to the cottage to start her vacation with her son and grandchildren (She probably could have been a Nascar driver).  Margaret also loved to weave baskets, which led her to join the Basket Weavers’ Guild of Genesee Valley and continued to weave baskets throughout her life.   Margaret “Peg” Joyce Bushey joined her parents Ralph and Margaret, her husband Franklin W. and her son Ralph G. when she departed from this world. She leaves behind her four grandchildren Deborah, Franklin B., Ralph J. (Eden), and Sarah, her great-grandchild Everett Bushey, her grandchildren’s mother Kathy, sister Patricia (Jim) Liang, and niece and nephews.     Margaret will be interned in the family plot within Holy Sepulchre Cemetery between her husband and son on Saturday, (March 21^st) 10:00 AM.  (Please meet at the east side Gate of Holy Sepulchre).  A Mass will be said in her honor at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Penfield, NY. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the National Alliance on Mental Health or the American Heart Association in her memory. For more information and to sign Peg’s online guestbook, visit www.meesonfamily.com