Margaret Ann Grometstein

Margaret Ann Reimer Grometstein, 95, died peacefully on January 14, 2023, surrounded by family members. Margaret was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania to Charles and Grace (Duerr) Reimer, the second of their five children.  Her husband of 65 years, Alan A. Grometstein, died in 2012. Margaret is survived by a brother, James Duerr and his wife Sue of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania.  She leaves four children: Randall Grometstein and her husband John Pustell, Alan S. Grometstein and is wife Yvette R. Grometstein, Ann G. Rosas and her husband Nelson Rosas and Martha G. Matsuda and her husband Fernando Matsuda.  Margaret enjoyed being the grandmother of 7 grandchildren: Scott Greg Whitney, Sarah Lancaster, Luke Rosas, Meredith Pustell, Ross Pustell, Kimberly Matsuda and Nicholas Matsuda.

Margaret was a proud alumna of Cornell University New York Hospital School pf Nursing, graduating in 1948.  She met Alan Grometstein on a blind date in February 1949, and they married six months later.

In 1961, Alan and Margaret moved to Stoneham.  Margaret went back to work as a nurse in 1970, first at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford, then at Blue Cross, PSRO, and eventually at a weight loss clinic. From 1985-87, she and Alan lived in the Marshall Islands on an American army base, which is where she learned to do Hawaiian quilting.  Upon her return to Stoneham, Margaret and three friends embarked on a project that would become the capstone of her life's work which was to help victims of domestic violence.  After five years of work by the founders, The Second Step, Inc. (www.the secondstep.org), opened its doors in Newton to women and children in need of transitional housing as they rebuild their lives following domestic abuse.

Margaret was a member of the Melrose Unitarian Universalist Church for more than 50 years.  She was a member of the Stoneham League of Women Voters and the Nimble Thimblers Quilting Guild.  An avid quilter, she blessed all of her grandchildren with a baby quilt at birth.  Margaret made quilts for friends and family members and joined other quilters at her church to make them for community organizations.

Margaret will be buried alongside Alan at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge.  A Celebration of Life service is being planned for Saturday, March 11th at 10;00 A.M. in the Melrose Unitarian Universalist Church, 70 West Emerson St., Melrose.  Donations in her memory may be made to The Second Step, Inc. Arrangements under the direction of Anderson-Bryant Funeral Home, Stoneham.