Diane K. Mulvehill of Norwalk died peacefully on Sunday evening as her husband and children held her hands.
Diane was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago but continued to embrace life, her friends and family as she underwent continuous treatment.
Diane is survived by her husband, Urban, her daughter Kathleen Falla, Kathleen’s husband Peter and their two sons Drew, 7 and Colin, 4; her son Urban, brothers Brian and Barry Gregory and beloved nieces and a nephew.
Diane was born and raised in Arlington, Washington. She lived in Norwalk more than 40 years after she and three girl friends, upon graduating from college, decided to drive and camp across the country to see what the other coast was like. Within days of arriving in August with no prior plans, she secured a position teaching middle-school English in Stamford. She met Urban and they married in 1972. She taught for eight years until she started her family.
Drawing on a talent for dance, Diane then taught aerobic exercise for the YMCA, sometimes with the kids in tow, teaching 18 or 20 classes a week for a dozen years, gave private lessons, and choreographed hundreds of routines for the other instructors.
As her children approached college, she went to work for MBI and worked there until her death. She regarded them as a wonderful employer during her illness.
Diane received the Norwalk Seaport Association Beacon Award three years ago in recognition of, among other things, serving as the Co-chair of the annual Oyster Festival for ten years and as Co-chair of the welcoming gates with approximately a hundred volunteers for the past thirty years. She served as one of the five founding members of the magnet school at Columbus, served as President of the Shorefront Park Association and as a current board member. Diane was a Eucharistic minister at St. Joseph Church.
She was also highly creative, artistic and a poet as anyone who received her Christmas poems during the past 12 years knows.
Most of all, Diane was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother and friend to all who knew her.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Norwalk Seaport Association or the Whittingham Cancer Center at Norwalk Hospital.
Friends may call on Wednesday from 4:00 to 9:00 PM at Collins Funeral Home, 92 East Avenue, Norwalk. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday at 11:00 AM in St. Joseph Church, 85 South Main Street, South Norwalk. Interment will be private. Please visit the website of Collins Funeral Home Norwalk, CT to leave condolences.
