Maureen Alanna Moriarty Schab, 58

LEWES - On Christmas Eve 2007, the day before her favorite day of the year, Maureen Alanna Moriarty Schab of Lewes, math teacher, karate instructor, tennis player, beach lover, wife, mother, grandmother-to-be and one brave, strong and gutsy lady, knew when to say when. She was 58.

For more than 15 years and without complaint, she lived life more fully than it is meant to be lived, while engaged in a war with first two, and then finally three, diseases for which, in combination, there is no cure.

Born in Bayside, Queens, N.Y., and raised not too far from there in Rockville Centre, Maureen was the daughter of Lauretta (Cardinal) Moriarty and the late Timothy Moriarty.

She went to Immaculata College, near Philadelphia, where she dabbled in basketball.

She met her husband Bill at a party at St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia in 1968. They were married in 1972, while Bill was in law school.

Maureen was a teacher. She began her teaching career in 1971 in Annapolis, Md. She loved her students, she believed that there was something good in all of them, and she went to extraordinary lengths to try to make them like and understand math.

Long before it was common or mandatory, she insisted that her students and their parents contact her on any day, at any time, with questions or for extra help. Regardless of how poorly students were doing, she would urge, encourage and (some probably felt) harass them into doing better because she truly felt that each one of them was worth the effort.

She always taught at the junior high level, and in Delaware, she taught at Milton Junior High, Lewes Middle School, and most recently and for many years, Academic Challenge at DelTech in Georgetown.

While teaching and also while raising a family, she tutored scores of struggling kids who sought her help, who were referred by other teachers, or who she just knew needed help.

Hoping to travel more with her family, and in silent acknowledgement of her rapidly declining health, she retired from teaching in June, although she continued to tutor until a few days before going into the hospital for the last time.

Maureen was a black belt in Tae Kwon-Do. She loved karate, the spiritual/mental side maybe even more than the physical, and she particularly loved teaching at the Sussex Family YMCA.

She was initially devastated when, after first becoming ill, her doctors told her to stop karate. However, refusing to let a little thing like a deadly disease affect her life, she interpreted her doctors' orders as a suggestion that she refrain from the more violent aspects of full contact karate.

On Nov. 29, 2007, her last good day on earth and almost 16 years after being told that her body could not take the rigors of any strenuous activity, she taught her kids class at the YMCA.

Tennis with the girls was her favorite pastime and she became quite proficient at the game. After the onset of her illness in the early 1990s, she dedicated herself to doubles. For the last 18 months she was able to persevere and mask her symptoms so well that some of her regulars did not even know she was ill and the many doctors who treated her at the end, except for the one who knew her the best, could not believe that someone in her condition had played tennis just the week before her emergency admission.

For the last 20 years Maureen also found time to have what was almost a full-time job as Bill's bookkeeper at the law firm of Schab & Barnett. She had no formal training, but her math background proved invaluable to the firm.

What Maureen loved most was her family - Bill, her husband of 35 years, their son, Corey, their daughter, Kerry and her husband Chris, whom are expecting in June; Dodger, the dog she swore she would never like, much less love; and Oscar, the world's craziest fish.

Trips with Bill and the kids was how she wanted to spend her time. Using her persuasive powers and without ever telling her family that she somehow knew that her life was nearing its end, they went on dream trips to Costa Rico and Alaska in the past two years and she and Bill recently took a trip to Carmel, Calif., somewhere Maureen always wanted to go.

The immediate and extended Schab families were scheduled to meet this Christmas at Maureen and Bill's second home in Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii, a place that Maureen adored.

In addition to her husband, son and daughter, Maureen is survived by her mother, Laurie; two brothers and their families; many aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws and more than 100 first and second cousins.

When someone dies, it is usually said that the survivors are the family members. However, Maureen's survivors are also the thousands of former students who benefited from her caring and concern and her many dear and close friends from St. Agnes High School, from Immaculata and St. Joe's, from Bill's law school days, from Sussex County, and from Hawaii. She was loved by all who knew her. The intensity of the sadness felt by her family and friends cannot be expressed in words.

A funeral mass will be 11 a.m. today at St. Jude the Apostle Church, on the east side of Del. 1, just north of Five Points, near Lewes. There will be a reception immediately following at the Officer's Club at Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes.

Maureen really loves flowers. However, it is her wish that the money spent on flowers instead be donated to charity. The "Maureen Schab Fund for Education" has been established in her honor through the Greater Lewes Foundation. Tax-deductible donations may be sent to the fund at P.O. Box 110, Lewes, DE 19958. Cards may be sent to the family at 109 Madison Ave., Lewes, DE 19958.