Sunapee
To many, Huff seemed omnipresent, whether volunteering her time and talents in the community, running her store on Lower Main Street, or just stopping to chat and catch up with former students.
The 68-year-old Huff was helping to organize her 50th high school class reunion and the town’s 250th anniversary, both to be held on the same weekend in mid-August, when she collapsed and died at her home on June 24, 2018.
“If Sunapee had a town cheerleader, it would be Brenda,” said her close friend Kathryn Ward, who knew Huff since they were children. “She had always been extremely supportive of her town.”
Her son Shane believes his mother was ingrained from an early age with an awareness of community involvement, watching her late father, longtime Selectman Bill Roach, participate in town government.
“She was incredibly proud of where she lived and grew up,” Shane Huff said.
“She was like a chip off the old block,” added her brother, Brad Roach, about his sister’s community involvement.
Engaging and energetic, Huff’s legacy of love for family, children and learning and all things Sunapee left a lasting impression on many.
A couple of months after Huff died, the family organized a liquidation sale at her store in downtown Sunapee, Tattered Pages, which sold books and educational games and toys for children.
Friend Betty May Graham, who at times would help at the store, said when they were preparing for the sale a man walked in who was about 40 and remembered having Huff as his teacher when he was in elementary school.
“He wanted to tell me that he just loved her,” said Graham. “She just had this way of really caring about people and making you feel that she cared.”
The day before the sale was open to the public, several of Huff’s colleagues wanted to remember their friend in a way that won’t be forgotten any time soon.
“We bought a few hundred books and will donate them to the elementary school in Brenda’s honor,” said Joanne Skarin, a teaching colleague, who said Huff had always dreamed of opening a book store with educational material for children.
It was at a conference in Denver that Skarin and Huff attended while they were both teaching that the name of the store was born.
“We saw a big book store called ‘Tattered Cover’ and Brenda said, ‘that is what I am going to call it,’ ” Skarin said, noting the slight change to Tattered Pages.
“She put a lot of time and effort into the shop,” said her daughter Kali in an email. “She made sure to have the best quality, most up to date trends, and books galore.”
Kali said the original store was in Sunapee Harbor but Huff closed it around the time her first grandchild was on the way and her son was getting married so she could be there to help her children.
“She then decided to (re) open her shop and found a cute spot right next to the high school,” Kali said. “Her love and passion was with kids. She loved to see the joy on kids’ faces and even parents and grandparents faces as they would roam through her shop. She took a lot of pride in Tattered Pages. It was another way to stay connected to the community. People would stop in sometimes just to chat with her.
As he prepared for the sale, Dennis Pietro, who is not from the area, said in a phone interview he was “blown away” by how many people expressed their shock at Huff’s passing and remember her as kind and spirited.
“Several people were crying when they were telling me about her,” Pietro said. “Seems everybody in the community knew her; I never get that sort of response at these sales.”
After the sale concluded, Pietro filled a lot of boxes with books, stuffed animals and toys and delivered them to the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth in Huff’s memory. Pietro took other items to a few other charities.
Huff was born and raised in Sunapee, the daughter of Bill and Alice Roach. She received her undergraduate degree from Plymouth State University and her master’s in education from the University of New Hampshire. She taught for 40 years, mostly as a reading specialist, at the elementary school.
“She would come home from school with a cute or funny story to tell about her students,” said Kali, remembering the two of them spending hours cutting up laminated school material for her class. “She really tried to teach the students and not the class. She believed in every child that she taught and made sure they knew that. She dedicated her whole life to children.”
Her husband, Mike, who Huff was married to for nearly 36 years, remembers well the impact Huff had on her students.
“She started a lot of kids off on the right foot,” said Mike.
But the impression she left was not only on former students.
Many remember Huff’s fairy house event when the store was in the harbor and she would invite children to spend a day building the huts using natural material.
“She would collect all the sticks and bark and lay it on the ground for the kids to make the houses,” said her friend Rhonda Gurney.
Gurney’s daughter, Lilliana, never had Huff as a teacher but came to know and admire her when she visited the store.
After Huff died, Lilliana, 15, approached the 250th committee and asked if she could have a fairy hut event during the celebration as way to remember her.
“She gathered everything and tried to mirror what Brenda did,” Gurney said. “She had good memories of the fairy huts so it was a natural thing for her to do.”
Both Kali and Shane said their mother was a whirlwind of activity but was never overwhelmed or stressed, just full of patience and joy for the task at hand.
“Whatever life threw at her, she took it and ran with it,” said Shane, who lives in Iowa. “She was always busy, whether taking us to sporting events, volunteering or helping out. We were three-sport athletes and played in summer leagues. Mom would be one of the ‘buses’ to take us to games. It was just amazing to grow up with that support in sports and school.”
“She was our biggest fan and you could always hear her cheering us on,” added Kali, who also said her mother was not bashful about yelling at the referees on occasion.
When her children played high school basketball, Huff volunteered to keep the scorebook — which she continued to do after they graduated, for both varsity and junior varsity.
Sunapee Athletic Director Tom Frederick said Huff made the task fun for everyone around her
“She always came in with a smile and a basket full of candy for the coaches and officials,” said Frederick, who added that state officials always said Sunapee had some of the best kept scorebooks in the state. “She was always excited for the kids.”
Her friend, Joanne Skarin recalled when the governing body of New Hampshire high school athletics decreed that anyone at the scorer’s table had to wear a referee shirt with the black and white stripes so Huff decided to have a little fun with it.
“She made hers to look like a tuxedo jacket,” Skarin said.
Frederick well remembers Huff’s attire.
“She would wear a bow tie and snazz up the shirt to make it unique,” Frederick said.
Though a big presence in town, Huff also believed in doing the little things for friends and strangers alike.
“She believed in paying it forward,” Kali said. “She would randomly pay for the coffee for the next person in line or the toll at the toll booth. She would even bring along funky pens or something to give to the toll attendants in an attempt to brighten their day.”
Huff’s passing leaves a large hole in the town’s heart and soul that won’t be easy to fill.
“She was the type of person every town should have, would jump right in and always help out,” said Ward, her friend since childhood. “To lose her is shocking … She just loved being involved in everything and for her it was a labor of love.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com
