Abigail Freeborn Williamson's Obituary
The Abigail Freeborn Williamson (neé Harrison) Story
Abigail (Abby) Freeborn Williamson, daughter of Barbara Way [Weymouth] and Paul Henry Harrison, passed away from natural causes on November 12, 2024 in Annapolis, MD at age 85.
Freeborn, in some sense, says it all. Passionate, optimistic, lasting relationships quickly formed, Abby consistently strove to find and amplify the best in others, and greatly valued the many, varied and deep connections she established with fellow travelers in this life. Abby always had a talent for (and curse of) deep insight into the motivations and character of others, and a gift for overlooking faults. It was not unusual for her to strike up a conversation in the grocery store that would lead to a dinner/sailing invitation with her kids that also, inevitably, resulted in help painting her living room. She deeply valued the beauty and solace of her natural surroundings and never missed an opportunity to engage in a nature-based adventure. An intrepid sailor, she liked nothing better than feeling the tug of full sails and jumping off the back of the sailboat to be dragged along “trolling for sharks” as a proud member of the “Drag’in Family,” as she put it. The image of our mom, at age 70+, sliding down “10 foot falls” in an inflatable kayak in the North Carolina mountains illustrates her spirit of adventure.
Wild tales from Abby’s quirky childhood in Rhode Island and Maine with her mother Barbara (pronounced Bah-bah-rah), and her co-conspirator brothers, Scott and Charlie Harrison, illustrate the source of her penchant for unconventional adventure. She told stories about her family “cat,” Miz Ma'm'selle Hepzibah (actually a de-scented garbage can skunk “won” with a raffle ticket she sold to a neighbor who then indignantly dropped it on Abby's front porch) who would disappear into chair stuffing to hibernate each winter. Then there were the adventures of Poopsie the pet ram and Ichabod the pet steer, who could be found warming themselves by the kitchen woodstove after a bout of chasing cars down the lane in rural Maine. Convention was not always on the menu at the Harrison farm.
After moving south for school, Abby earned a BA in Ancient Greek from Goucher College, married Ray Williamson, and moved to Annapolis, Maryland to teach primary grades at the Key School in 1962. She gave birth to Ethan in 1964. In 1967, 8 ½ months pregnant with daughter Sarah, the couple moved their family to Hawaii for Ray’s graduate fellowship in astronomy. While far from her roots, Abby found her heart’s home in the Aloha spirit of Hawaii during their two years there. Despite returning to Annapolis for Ray’s teaching position at St. John’s College, she always nurtured a dream of one day returning to Hawaii. Following the couple’s separation and divorce, Abby earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of Maryland in Baltimore, and joined a marriage and family counseling practice, all while putting her all into raising two kids. Faced with two self-confident (headstrong) tweens, she was wise enough to find support for her parenting style at Annapolis Friends Meeting and the Baltimore Yearly Meeting Camping program. She soon joined the Catoctin Quaker Camp staff in order to afford a truly transformational community experience for herself and her kids.
A born “people person”, Abby was a builder of community, providing a welcoming place for her kids and their friends, as well as room, board and famous sing-along parties for visiting professionals performing with the Annapolis Opera. She regularly opened her Annapolis home to people in need, including various teens needing temporary housing, a refugee who escaped on foot from iron-curtain Poland, and a mother and her 2 boys who were leaving a difficult marriage. As one neighborhood kid (now grown) recently reflected “her home was like a sanctuary, a place of acceptance and warmth.”
Abby deeply loved music. From the Wednesday night blue grass singalongs with Ray, neighbors and friends, to her volunteer work with the Annapolis Brass Quintet and the Annapolis Opera, to singing in the Annapolis and Wilmington Chorales, she always made live music a key part of her life. Abby also loved adventurous travel, visiting Ethan as he studied in Germany, traveling to Spain with her uncle Chas and his partner Dewey, and visiting friends in Istanbul to sail in the Turkish Straits.
Once her kids were fledged, she embarked on perhaps her greatest adventure. Rather than pining in an empty nest, she boldly moved back to her beloved Hawaii, with no job or housing. Very quickly she built a whole new life and career serving families of Hawaiian descent at the Queen Liliuokalani Children’s center, ultimately learning the Hawaiian language and working with those founding the Hawaiian language charter school movement. Though far from family and old friends, she soon built an “ohana (family)” of colleagues, community activists, musicians, and friends. She had an amazing ability to manifest her dreams, despite the modest circumstances her career in social work provided, and spent some of her 16 years in Hawaii living on a cliff 30 feet above the ocean where one could watch whales breaching from the breakfast table. She continued her long practice of hospitality in Hawaii, regularly hosting family, friends, and even strangers through an international homestay organization.
When her health made retirement and a move away from Hawaii inevitable, she relocated near son Ethan and daughter-in-law Amy in Wilmington NC for 4 years, where they spent many a moonlit evening sailing in the salt marshes behind Masonboro Island. Tragically, poor medical advice following a pace-maker battery replacement led to a devastating stroke in 2012, weeks after Ethan had accepted a Head of School position in California. While mental acuity and language were largely unaffected, she was entirely paralyzed on her left side and in need of full-time institutional care for activities of daily living. Daughter Sarah and Abby's dear friend Joyce Roper provided unremitting support in making her life at Spa Creek Nursing Facility in Annapolis as bearable as possible for the last twelve and a half years of her life. Even in these diminished circumstances, Abby was a beacon of friendship to those passing through her new environment. Sarah was regularly greeted by strangers on her visits to Spa Creek telling her what a wonderful, welcoming, and interesting person her mother was. Abby was also a staunch and persistent advocate for her own care, making regular calls on the facility administrator to converse regarding improvements she felt should be made, which often ended in long chats on life and family. Rather than expressing annoyance, the administrator always demurred saying she found Abby and her life fascinating. Abby’s strength, zest for life, and deep interest in others sustained her to the end, even while her failing body created considerable suffering. Though she will be deeply missed, her spirit is now blessedly free to pursue her next adventure
Abby is survived by her brother Charlie Harrison, by her daughter Sarah Williamson, son in law Rob Schnabel and their children Lauren and Emmett, by her son Ethan Williamson, daughter in law Amy Williamson, their son Matt Gordon and his sons Asa and Ezra, and by her ex-husband Ray Williamson and his wife Carol Carnett who helped support Abby's physical therapy in her time of need following her stroke.
A Celebration of Life service will be at held on Saturday, March 29 from 1-3 pm at Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 6 Herndon Ave, Annapolis, MD 21403
In lieu of flowers, please consider a Donation to the Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM) Camping Program. (https://fundraise.givesmart.com/form/wAw4hg?vid=1dqfj4) Abby cared deeply about community and one of her most beloved was the BYM Camps that appealed to her innate love of adventure and silliness and nurtured both her and her children through critical parts of their lives.
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