Florence Elizabeth Herring, daughter of the late Antonio and Anna Marie Danna, went home on early Monday morning. She is preceded in death by her mother, father and beloved son, David Herring. She leaves behind her husband of over 70 years, the absolute love of her life, George Thomas Herring (Jack). She also leaves her son, George Herring Jr. and his wife, Lori Herring, Susan Herring Teeter and her husband, Aubrey Teeter, her granddaughter/namesake Marie Elizabeth Troute and her husband, Philip Stevenson, as well as granddaughters Julia Troute and Jessica Herring. She also, and very notably, leaves behind two of her favorite people, her friends and sisters-in-law, Jeannie Davis & of course, Mama Lou Mauro (who worked with Florence, introduced her to Jack, and stood beside them as they took their vows) as well as COUNTLESS nieces, nephews and cousins that she loved, literally, as her own. Florence was possibly the kindest soul that many of us ever met, although if you asked her, she would tell you how far from perfect she was. She was always humble, often quiet, endlessly loving and extremely powerful, in her own way. Just ask her husband. If you knew her, met her, if you had ever even HEARD her name, then please never doubt how greatly she loved you and how many good things she wanted for you in your life. Florence loved to cook and bake and laugh and sing. She cleaned things obsessively and endearingly. She made changing a pillowcase fun. Florence loved the people around her with a fierceness that not many saw behind her soft demeanor. She was demanding only in that everyone, herself included, be the best possible versions of themselves that they could be. Although her cheery disposition belied it, Florence had been suffering from severe scoliosis since her early teenage years and had undergone a painful spinal fusion surgery at sixteen which left her confined to her bed for nearly a year. Florence was told that she'd never have children; she gave birth to three. Florence was told that she would lose the ability to walk before 40; she walked until the day that she died. After her children were born, Florence was told that she would need another spinal fusion surgery or she would be in too much pain to live a normal life; she told the doctors that she wouldn't give up a year with her children to bedrest. Despite the naysayers, Florence lived a long, life against and despite the odds, and no matter how much pain she was in, she just kept on going. She was, in the sweetest possible way, defiant, a rebel, and an outlier to the norm. She was a woman of faith, strength, character, conviction, community, kindness, happiness, loveliness and laughter. She was good. She was truly good. She believed in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. She prayed constantly, not for worldly things, but to be a better woman, a better wife, a better mother, a better grandmother, and a better human being. She also prayed for happiness, not just for her family, but for everyone.... FOR EVERYONE. Florence and Jack have always loved Christmas. For many years, after decorating had gone beyond any normal degree of sanity, they would gather their children and grandchildren and go through the house looking for things that weren't absolutely essential. They gathered shirts, sweaters and blankets, practically anything that wasn't nailed down. Florence boiled eggs, made sandwiches, put together canned foods (and the always forgotten utensils with which to open and eat them). She and her love, along with their children, and their children's children filled their home with bags of food & clothes & blankets to take downtown and hand out to those without the bounty of love and blessings that Florence and Jack considered their modest life to be. They spent most of their holidays giving instead of receiving. That is the woman that Florence was, and that is how she raised her family -- to be kind, to smile, to lend a helping hand, to look for those in need and assist them. She was silly and fun and beautiful and smart and kind. And she was loved. She was SO very loved. For all that she did and was, from raising children, to bleaching everything in sight, to building tents in which to serve her grandchildren "tea," she was LOVED. In her later years, the only thing she ever asked of her family was, "Were you happy? Did you have fun? Do you know how much I love you?" And the answer was always the same. Of course we do. Her love was plentiful, constant, and a great blessing to us all. As a family, we want to thank and celebrate her for that. Although she died peacefully from natural causes, we would all appreciate and we know that Florence would have politely asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the American Cancer Society in remembrance of her late son David.