DONATIONS honoring Esmae Doucette
- From the family: In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Esmae’s memory to:
- Tin Mountain Conservation Center
- Starting Point Services
- New England Donor Services
- Or an environmental conservation group of your choice.
SERVICE in memory of ESMAE DOUCETTE
Sat, Dec. 17
2pm • Service at Jackson Community Church (zoom available upon request: email requests for zoom link will be monitored through noon of Sat, Dec 17)
3-5pm • Reception at Ledge Brewing
Bio released to the Conway Daily Sun:
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman
Esmae Arabella Doucette passed from this life peacefully on Dec. 2, 2022. She was surrounded by her parents, five siblings and grandmother holding her in love and light.
Esmae was born Feb. 25, 1999, at home in Jackson, N.H. She was the fourth child of six. Imaginative and creative, she was a true child of Jackson, who enjoyed swimming in the Wildcat and Ellis rivers, hiking, exploring the Nordic trails and many beautiful bluebird days skiing at Black Mountain. Her early childhood, surrounded by natural beauty, formed in her a deep and lasting commitment to the environment and conservation of the Earth’s wild places.
She attended the Lilliputian Montessori Preschool and then the Jackson Grammar School, where she developed a love of reading and storytelling, played soccer, and skied. During these golden years, she formed forever friendships with Nina, Abby, Logan, Eliza and Ari. She spent several years participating in Girl Scouts and the Bill Koch Youth Ski League. She was awarded the DAR Good Citizen award as a graduating sixth grader. During the summers, Esmae attended Tin Mountain Camp and Camp Nokomis on Bear Island, Lake Winnipesaukee.
She went on to Josiah Bartlett Elementary School and Kennett High School where she met lifelong friends, Rachel and Jasmine. There she excelled in academics and was a National Honor Society member.
Esmae was a member of Key Club International and was elected the vice president of her class and served as student council representative to the school board, collaborating on environmental issues to improve conditions at the school. Esmae was on the soccer team, mountain bike team and ski teams. She competed in all three ski disciplines: Nordic, alpine and jumping, to tie with her friend for the Skimeister title.
Esmae was employed by Dutch Bloemen Winkle in Jackson, Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Tuckerman’s Tavern in Intervale, the Red Fox Bar & Grille in Jackson and as a camp counselor for Tin Mountain Conservation Center.
Esmae graduated early and took time before her graduation ceremony with her classmates to work and play and attended a memorable trip to France with her French class.
After graduation, she took some time to discover and develop her goals. She spent a summer in Bath, Maine, living next to the ocean she so loved and exploring the coastline.
From there she moved to Savannah, Ga., to spend time with her older sister, Isabelle, and interned at the Tybee Island Marine Research Center. Esmae loved her caretaking responsibilities for the creatures there, cementing her resolve to study Marine Biology. She went on to study at Stony Brook University and Southern New Hampshire University.
Always an avid reader, Esmae frequented all three of the valley’s libraries and was never without a good book. Much of her free time was spent rambling on the many trails in our gorgeous White Mountains, bagging peaks with her friends, sisters and beloved dog Layla. Countless mornings her parents would be enjoying their first cups of coffee as she would just be returning from a sunrise hike, cheeks flush and enthusiastically sharing her observations of the woods, mountains, and animals.
Anyone who was lucky enough to meet Esmae was greeted by her huge smile and quickly enamored with her infectious laugh. Gifted at making others feel at ease, she had a warmth and generosity of spirit that she used to make people feel good about themselves.
She cared deeply for and was fiercely protective of her friends and siblings, showing up for them in good and difficult times. If you were fortunate enough to be called her friend, it was for life.
As a way to show her affection, she often toiled for hours making homemade gifts full of inspirational passages elaborately decorated by her own hand. As her final act of generosity, selflessness and love, Esmae was an organ donor, giving the gift of life to three others.
Esmae is survived by her loving parents, Sean and Heath Doucette of Jackson; her sisters, Charlotte Doucette of North Conway, N.H.; Madison Doucette of Intervale, N.H.; Isabelle Doucette of Intervale; Sabine Doucette of Jackson; and brother Stash Doucette of Jackson; grandmother Catherine Nash of Conway, N.H.; aunt and uncle, Rachel and Brendan Moses; and cousins, Julia and Owen Moses of Bar Harbor, Maine.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Esmae’s memory to Tin Mountain Conservation Center, Starting Point Services, New England Donor Services or an environmental conservation group of your choice.
Please join us in celebrating the life of Esmae on Saturday, Dec. 17. A memorial service will begin at 2 p.m. at the Jackson Community Church followed by a celebration of life at the Ledge Brewing Co. in Intervale from 3 to 6 p.m. with Riley Parkhurst on stage. We will be gathering to share our memories and stories, to laugh, to cry and to remember the beautiful spirit of Esmae.