Laurel Diane DeStefano

Laurel Diane DeStefano, 77, of Naples, FL passed away peacefully at home on 10/19/25, under hospice care. A private funeral Mass will be held at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Westfield, IN on 10/30/25 at noon. Born in Cumberland, MD on June 1st, 1948, Laurel was raised in humble circumstances in rural Pennsylvania. She graduated from John Brown University and then attended medical school at Hahnemann University where she met her future husband, Joseph. Selfless in her approach to life’s duties, Laurel suspended her work as a family medicine physician to start a family. The maternal and marital roles never practically ended during life, as her husband and eight children leaned on her stalwartness through her last conscious breath. Colon cancer in 1986 did not take her life, but it permanently reduced her health. Laurel was a suffering soul, which she bore out quietly and dutifully throughout the remainder of her life, for the sake of souls, within the divine economy of God’s grace. Always in play were a stack of books under varied stages of consumption, many of which extended into hobbies of all sorts—gardening, cooking, art, music. She loved sharing these hobbies with her children and grandchildren. Laurel had many intellectual interests and never ceased to digest new information – she loved to learn. She was active as leader in several ladies’ groups, generally in the context of her faith. Perhaps most telling of her life’s priorities was her caretaking of her daughter with Down syndrome, up until she literally exhausted the physical ability to continue. Underpinning the full collective of her exterior and interior life activity was her undying love of the Catholic Church and its spiritual gifts, and its Author above all things. Such immersion was summarily evident to those who knew her, and by the smile she wore at the moment of her death. Laurel is survived by her husband of 53 years, as well as her eight children, eighteen grandchildren, all three of her own siblings, and her mother. She will be remembered for her selflessness for all things dutiful within her state in life, a brainy resource to friends and family for so many things all at once, and generally a model of one who “preached the Gospel always, using words when necessary”.