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Alexandra Johanna Greathouse

1989 – 2016

Alexandra Johanna Greathouse was a 26-year-old “adopted” daughter of Boston who died on May 3rd, leaving behind:

  • 42 pairs of insanely cute shoes
  • An assortment of high quality false eyelashes
  • Dozens of books, from Macbeth to Ethics of Public Relations to Hot Guys and Baby Animals, and
  • Countless lives forever enriched by her generous heart, lusty spirit, and mischievous smile.

Alex was a spunky kid who spent her early years at the family owned Ship Harbor Inn, in Washington state. She welcomed guests, hung out with the maids, and along with her sister Maddy, cared for a menagerie of animals that included a miniature donkey, and an alpaca. She did well in school, was active in sports, excelled in DECCA, worked at the local pizza parlor, and counted the days until graduation.

She attended Boston University where she earned a B.A. in Communications and eventually landed a position as an Account Executive at Conventures Inc., New England’s Leading Event Planner. Boston became her forever home… her friends, colleagues and clients her extended family.

There was so much more to Alex than her great sense of style, cool friends, and awesome job. She was our very own super-charged, super-sweet, supernova… lighting up our lives even as hers was consumed by cancer. She inspired dozens of letters during her last days with us, each so full of love and appreciation, echoing the sentiments of the excerpt shared below:

“You have taught me to be kind to everyone (even the ones that may not deserve it), be a better listener, be positive and strong and have as much fun as possible and not to sweat the little things. I am seriously a changed person because of you. When you were pretty sick you went out of your way and got Adam a care package when he had his surgery. You just always think of other people and that love and thoughtfulness is something that I am trying to adopt now.”

Alex will live on in all of us; making us kinder, stronger, braver, and a little more fun… she is merely gone from our sight:

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.  She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says, ‘There she goes!’

Gone where?

Gone from my sight… that is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination.  Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, ‘There she goes!’ there are other eyes watching her coming and their voices ready to take up the glad shouts ‘Here she comes!’

Henry van Dyke (1852 – 1933)

Alex was a member of a close, loving family who will miss her dearly. She is survived by her father Glenn Greathouse Jr., stepmother Kandy Greathouse, mother Suzanne Greathouse, stepfather Lou Novak, sister Madeline Greathouse, grandfathers Glenn Greathouse Sr. and Wallace Franz, aunts, uncles and their children: Jim and Terry Skaugstad, Jan and Bob Morrill, Randy Kane, Vicki Kane, Renee and John Haugen, Dan Salfisberg, Chet and Deanne Franz, Andrew Franz, Chris Franz, Eric and Susan Franz.

Donations can be made in her name to Dana Farber Cancer Institute or the Oral Cancer Foundation:

dana-farber.org/gift or donate.oralcancer.org