Vera (Grinko) Beecroft

Schaghticoke - Vera Grinko Beecroft, 91, of State Route 40 in Schaghticoke, died peacefully on Monday, March 10th. She was predeceased by her beloved husband Tom Arthur Beecroft; her sister Sophia and her husband John; her brother John and his wife Marjorie; her brother William (Bill) and his wife Julia; and her brothers Theodore (Ted) and Gregory (Harry). Vera was born on May 27th, 1933, daughter of Feodor Grinko and Anna Molesky Grinko, who had both immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe in the 1910s. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law Joel and Patricia Beecroft of Schaghticoke; her daughter and son-in-law Nadia and John Christy of Easton, NY; her grandson and granddaughter-in-law Justin and Ashton Christy of South Bend, IN; her grandson and granddaughter-in-law Andrew Christy and McKay Walsh of Plattsburgh, NY; her loving sister Lubov Wolosen of Schaghticoke, and numerous step-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.

Vera grew up on her family farm on South Cambridge Road in Easton. She went to a one-room schoolhouse on Beadle Hill Road through grade six, then attended Greenwich Central. She quit school at age 16 to go to work. She met Tom through friends in Troy, and they were married on August 13th, 1953. In the 1960s, as a mother of two young children, Vera decided to go back to school and finish what she had started. She completed her high school education at Hoosic Valley, attending a combination of morning classes (alongside students half her age!) and evening classes. She encouraged other adult learners, especially her dear friend Carole Lesson, to join her in this endeavor. After earning her high school diploma Vera continued her education, completing her teaching certification through HVCC and Empire State College. Her husband and children were her best cheerleaders throughout this journey. They loved taking her to her college classes, as Vera herself didn’t drive yet at that point in her life.

Vera became an elementary teacher at Hoosic Valley, then a PSEN reading and math teacher for students who needed extra support in those areas. She loved her students and what she taught. With another dear friend Marilyn Asprion, she became a 4-H leader, and with their daughters and their young friends they formed the Hoosic Valley Honeys. While in college, Vera had taken some art classes, and she fell in love with painting and pursued it passionately for the rest of her life. She started out painting with oil on canvas, but eventually shifted to what became her “signature” medium of acrylic paint on slate panels (often repurposed old roof shingles). Vera’s artworks decorate the homes of many of her family members and friends, and she sometimes sold her work at local art and craft fairs. She also loved watching birds, reading, and working on puzzles.

Vera was a lifelong Orthodox Christian, the faith her parents carried in their hearts from the Old Country. In her earliest years, Vera and her family worshipped in an improvised country chapel, where they were occasionally visited by a priest. For many years afterwards she was a communicant of Saint Basil Orthodox Church in Maplewood, and for the past 40-plus years was a communicant of Holy Wisdom Church at New Skete Monastery in Cambridge. Vera’s staunch faith led her husband Tom to convert to Orthodoxy, and he became a devout believer in his own right. She was an active member of the chapel community at New Skete, helping to initiate and put on the annual Spring Festival and other events. Helping the community of monks and nuns was a great honor and pleasure for Vera. Beyond her participation in the Church community, Vera prayed and read the Bible daily, and reliably spoke of God and faith in her everyday conversations. The sincerity and depth of her faith were clear to everyone who knew her. She saw God’s presence in all things, and trusted in His love and goodness even through her darkest hours.

Alongside her faith, Vera’s life was dedicated most of all to caring for her family, which was her greatest joy. She was an effusively loving and generous daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, and aunt. From babysitting her grandsons when they were young, to welcoming her brother Harry into her home when he could no longer live independently, to surreptitiously slipping fistfuls of “gas money” into her adult grandsons’ pockets, Vera always did whatever she could to help the people she loved. She also spoke lovingly of the departed members of her family, especially her parents, husband, and siblings, keeping their memories alive in this world for many years after their passing. Vera often said how blessed she felt to have had the family and friends that she did. Indeed, she was expressing these feelings until the last hours of her life. It seems safe to say that this was felt mutually by everyone whom Vera loved – she may have been blessed to know us, but we were surely blessed to know her.

Services for Vera will be held at New Skete Monastery in Cambridge, NY. A wake including a memorial service and visitation will be held on Monday, March 17th at 5pm. The family will remain to receive friends until 7pm. A funeral service followed by burial at New Skete’s cemetery and a repast will be held beginning at 10am on Tuesday, March 18th.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to New Skete Monastery. Arrangements are under the direction of McClellan-Gariepy Funeral Home, Inc., Salem.  May her memory be eternal!

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