Margaret “Peg” Harmon

Margaret “Peg” Harmon passed away peacefully at her home in Biddeford, Maine, on October 6, 2025, surrounded by her family, after a long illness. She was 80 years old.
 

Born Margaret Mary Dever on January 4, 1945, in Lewiston, Maine, she was the daughter of Paul Terance Michael Dever and Frances Mary Theresa Mullen. She was baptized at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland on January 21, 1945, with her uncle John Mullen as godfather and Margaret Ridge as godmother—the same Cathedral where her funeral Mass will be celebrated.
 

After her mother’s death from tuberculosis in 1946, Peg was lovingly raised in Portland, on Oxford and Atlantic Streets, by her mother’s siblings—Uncle John “Johnny” Mullen, Aunt Catherine “Katie” Kilmartin (née Mullen), and Aunt Margaret “Peggy” Mullen. She spent summers on Peaks Island, where she first fell in love with the sea that would later accompany her life as a military wife. She grew up alongside cousins Frances Mullen Kierstead, Michael Mullen, Barbara Mullen Black, and the Kilmartin brothers—William, John, Patrick, and Kevin—who were, in every way that mattered, her brothers and sisters. Their home on Munjoy Hill, alive with humor, faith, and resilience, became the foundation of Peg’s lifelong strength.
 

She attended Cathedral Elementary School and remained a lifelong communicant of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
 

In 1962, Peg married Andres A. “Big Andy” Verzosa Sr., who served in the U.S. Coast Guard. They began their married life in Portland before their first posting took them to Hawaii—a world away from home. Hawaii was beautiful beyond words, and Peg embraced its spirit of aloha, yet she remained homesick for Maine—for its rocky coast, its changing seasons, and the family she had left behind. As Portland’s own Longfellow wrote, “Often I think of the beautiful town that is seated by the sea”—words that might well have been hers.
 

After several years, the Coast Guard transferred them to Massachusetts, where they were stationed at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod and continued raising their growing family before eventually returning to Maine.
 

While living on Munjoy Hill and caring for small children as Big Andy shipped out to sea, Peg worked third shift at Fairchild National Semiconductor in Portland. Her Aunt Peggy and cousin Fran often came to babysit, allowing her to earn extra income for the family. When stationed at Otis, she continued her practical, enterprising spirit—cleaning and preparing base housing for military families to help support her young household.
 

After Big Andy’s passing in 1976, Peg’s resilience carried her forward. She earned her GED, studied nursing, and became a Certified Nursing Assistant. She worked in community outreach and home health and also served at the Reiche School Health Center and the STD Clinic in Portland—meeting people where they were, with humor, compassion, and unfailing dignity. 

In 1979, Peg married Paul A. Harmon, a devoted husband and partner with whom she shared forty-six years of marriage. They were married in the living room of their newly built home in Deering, a Portland neighborhood, surrounded by family and friends. Paul worked for many years at the Portland Press Herald before later joining the railroad. Together they built a life rooted in faith, love, and hard work.
 

They made their home first in Deering and then in Auburn, where—after all four boys had graduated from Deering High School—they started Ram Gate Farm, a forty-acre homestead on River Road. Though city-raised, Peg grew into a gardener’s hands; as she built her home and raised her sons, she came to love the natural world—the patience of seed and season—every bit as much as the sea she had known since childhood.
 

Following the loss of her son, Manuel (Manny), in 1993, Paul accepted a position with the Wisconsin Central Railroad (later part of the Canadian National Railway), and they relocated to Wisconsin around 1995. There, Peg worked at Copp’s Grocery and in the office of the train and conductor for the Canadian Railroad, became a Master Gardener, and built a circle of enduring friendships. After nearly a decade, they returned to Maine, rebuilt Ram Gate Farm, and later settled in Auburn again.
 

When Peg’s health began to decline after a series of strokes, she and Paul sold their home, moved briefly to Portland during her hospitalization, and then to Biddeford, where she received care and comfort at home for the final decade of her life. Their house in the Tea Kettle Corner neighborhood became a haven of quiet joys: birds at the feeders, small wild visitors in the yard, her loyal rescue dog Brady—whom she had lovingly adopted from out of state—at her side, and a rescued painted turtle they named Pope Leo.
 

Affectionately known as Margie to family, Peg to friends, and Mom to her sons, she made every home a place of welcome. Her kitchen was its heart—where her famous spaghetti sauce simmered, where a plate of something warm appeared as if by instinct, and where no one left without a baked treat or a “take-away for later.” Making quilts for us was one of her greatest joys, and one of our greatest blessings. She also belonged to quilting guilds in Maine and Wisconsin, where she found joy in learning, teaching, and sharing—a circle of friendship as much as of craft. Her love for her family was evident in every stitch of the quilts she made, ensuring that each of her sons and their families had a handmade quilt—love made visible, one stitch at a time.
 

Peg was not an elitist; she measured people by their kindness, not their status. She was a champion of the underdog, a believer in prayer, and a woman of deep respect for the diverse faiths and cultures of others. In the early 1990s, she and Paul volunteered with The AIDS Project in Portland, bringing home-cooked lunches and steady friendship to those who needed both.
 

She loved her own dogs and cats throughout the years and welcomed every creature her boys carried home: parakeets, stray cats and dogs, rabbits, ducks, turtles, frogs—sometimes even crayfish and guppies. She delighted in the small rituals of care: feeding the birds, tending the perennials, and sitting with her rescue dog Brady, watching the seasons turn. Her love for animals was a testament to her compassionate nature and added joy and warmth to her home.
 

Peg possessed a keen and curious mind. She loved to read, to learn, and to discuss the world—her interest in ideas as lively as her sense of humor. She loved Halloween, decorating inside and out—first for her children and later for the sheer delight of it. She adored New England sports, cheering on the Red Sox and Patriots, and she followed national and world events closely; in later years, MSNBC was often on in the background, her window to the broader world she cared about.
 

For the last ten years of her life, Peg lived with aphasia, cancer, and the effects of multiple strokes. Even so, she remained lucid, spirited, and present. She loved her Irish heritage; before her illness, she took part in research at the Maine Irish Heritage Center and traveled twice to the far western coast of Ireland, west of Galway City, to the Irish-speaking islands of Leitir Móir (Lettermore), Garmna (Gorumna), and Leitir Mealláin (Lettermullen), part of Ceantar na nOileán in Connemara—finding kinship and family connection in that weathered, beautiful landscape.
 

In 2018, through family genealogical efforts and the reach of the internet, Peg joyfully reconnected with her long-lost sister, Eunice Hughes Karmann (née Dever)—a reunion made possible by their children and filled with peace and gratitude.
 

Peg’s love was constant, expressed through everyday mercies—meals, quilts, gardens, and the habit of noticing who needed care. She believed that family, faith, and work were the proper measures of a life well lived. Orphaned as an infant and raised by her aunts and uncles in Portland, Peg understood the strength it takes to build a life from love and faith. In every season, she embodied the quiet nobility of those John Irving once called the Princes of Maine and Kings of New England—words first spoken to lift orphaned children, and ones that fittingly honor her own steadfast, kind, and noble spirit.
 

She is survived by her husband, Paul A. Harmon of Biddeford; her sons, Andres A. Verzosa (David Whaples) of New Britain, Connecticut; Joseph A. Verzosa (Patty Dillingham) of Westbrook; and John L. Verzosa (Jennifer Farina Verzosa) of Stafford, Virginia; her granddaughters, Ava and Emma Verzosa; her sisters, Frances Mullen Kierstead (Bob) of Scarborough and Eunice Hughes Karmann (née Dever) of Alta Vista, Kansas; her brother, Kevin Kilmartin of Portland; and many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.

She was predeceased by her first husband, Andres A. “Big Andy” Verzosa Sr., and her son, Manuel (Manny) A. Verzosa.
 

Visiting Hours will be held from 8:00am to 9:15am on Thursday, October 16 at the Conroy-Tully Walker Funeral Home of South Portland, 1024 Broadway. Prayers will be recited at the funeral home at 9:15am followed by a 10:00am Mass of Christian Burial at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 307 Congress Street, Portland, followed by burial at Calvary Cemetery in South Portland. Shortly before her passing, Peg received the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick from Father Timothy Nadeau of Good Shepherd Parish in Saco, who came on short notice to be at her bedside. She passed peacefully at home, with her husband and sons, surrounded by prayer and care.
 

The family wishes to extend heartfelt thanks to the teams at New England Cancer Specialists, Hospice of Southern Maine, and Comfort Keepers Home Care for their extraordinary care, kindness, and support to Peg and her family during her final years.
 

Instead of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland, World Central Kitchen, or Doctors Without Borders, reflecting Peg’s lifelong compassion and belief in helping others.