Marcia Dawn Lucille Vitalo (Van Liew) of Ephrata, PA, passed into the next life on July 27, 2018. She was the former wife of Jacob W. Vitalo of Reading PA. Her two children Daniel and Lynda were with her at Reading Hospital as she passed.

Marcia was born in Reading, PA to Sevellon Van Liew and Lucille (Brown), Christmas day 1933. Marcia’s father was a successful accountant and businessman and very much the handyman and her mother started her own business. Marcia would inherit the creativity and ambition of her parents. As a young person, she made her own clothing and crafts and won numerous awards for the former. She and her sister also had a lifelong interest in music, playing piano and singing. She was also quite active in her church (St. Paul’s E.C., Reading and West Wyomissing Chapel, West Lawn), for years as a teacher of primary age and piano and organ player. Other remembrances of her childhood were working in the family diaper cleaning business as a child of 7, working outside in the large family garden, and playing with childhood friends and going to Rosedale camp, Laureldale with her sister and friends.

Marcia excelled academically in high school (Wilson High School, West Lawn class of 1952), particularly enjoying the subjects of history and biology. Marcia would go on to attend Reading Hospital School of Nursing, graduating in 1955 and attaining her RN.

She worked at Reading Hospital and did private duty nursing work from 1975-1983; she would wear numerous hats: working in the maternity ward, the O.R., emergency, intensive care, patient care, and cancer care, and doing nursing assessments in private duty. In 1983, she was hired as a supervisor for the psychiatric ward at Wernersville State Hospital and would work there until retirement in 1998. She was known as a detail-oriented and extremely caring and empathic worker who showed concern not only for the patients but for her coworkers as well.

Marcia married Jacob (Jack) Vitalo of Moss Street, Reading, PA in May of 1958, after meeting in the Westside Youth Center of West Wyomissing Chapel. They had two children, Daniel and Lynda, 5 years apart. They lived in West Lawn, PA for most of their lives, until Marcia moved to Ephrata later in life.

Never one to sit around idle, Marcia continued to be very active following retirement. She worked with Comfort Keepers, the in-home care provider and made many new friends in that position. She continued her favorite avocations at home, among them gardening, playing piano, and keeping in touch with old friends. Marcia was much remembered for her extensive involvement in many volunteer causes: she assembled treat bags for the children at the Children’s Home of Reading several times a year, she wrote letters of encouragement and information to breast cancer victims (with the Loving Arms support group), and she was a strong champion and financial supporter of the Hope Rescue Mission, Reading. She was also the director of her high school reunion committee, coordinating the many details of their annual reunions and keeping classmates in touch about each other’s whereabouts and goings on.

Warm, outgoing, empathic, creative, and tireless are all qualities that defined Marcia. She was a loving mother and faithful wife as well as a faithful believer and servant of Christ. We will miss her, but look forward to the day we shall see her again with fellow believers in Christ.

Predeceased are Marcia’s parents and her sole sibling, sister Velma.

A memorial service will be held at on Saturday, August 11, 2018, at 12 p.m in the Edward J. Kuhn Funeral Home, 739 Penn Ave, West Reading, PA 19611 with visitation from at 10 a.m. To 12 p.m. A burial service will be private at the convenience of the family. In lieu of flowers, donations may be given to the Hope Rescue Mission at 645 North 6th Street, Reading, PA 19601 in memoriam of Marcia. Edward J. Kuhn Funeral Home Inc., is in charge of arrangements. Condolences may be recorded at www.kuhnfuneralhomes.com or mailed to the funeral home at address above.