TOPSHAM — Louise M. Bellows of Topsham died May 22, 2012. She was born July 9, 1925, in Providence, R.I. She was the first child of Norman Alexander MacColl and Mary Kimbark MacColl.

Following her 1946 graduation from Pembroke, she taught crafts at a settlement house in Providence. She married William Bellows of Pawtucket, R.I., whom she met in New York City just after the Japanese surrender. Their first date was an evening of jazz on 52nd Street. Six weeks after a May 1947 wedding, they joined the tutoring staff of Camp Waya Awi in Rangeley, a summer school for dyslexics, where they taught for eight summers. In 1951, they moved to Grosse Pointe, Mich., where she raised five sons, who made her very proud: William “Jerry,” Geoffrey, Dexter, James, and Edwin “Ted.” The family visited Cape Cod for summer barbecues with her parents, four siblings, nieces and nephews. They also visited the other grandparents, who summered in Little Compton, R.I. In 1964, they moved to Lexington, Mass., where she taught at the Pilgrim Nursery School for 18 years. She shared her love of nature, bringing, for example, milkweed bearing monarch butterfly eggs for children to watch the life cycle unfold. She loved birds, gardening, tough jigsaw puzzles, mysteries and knitting annual Christmas sweaters and stockings for the whole family, which included beloved daughters-in-law, eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Retiring to West Bath in 1986, Lou and Bill rehabbed an 18th-century farmhouse and built a barn by themselves. They volunteered for the Red Cross, the Maine Maritime Museum, and the Plant Home, where she took pets to visit the elderly.

A celebration of her life will be held later in the year. Memorial donations may be sent to the Coastal Humane Society, 30 Range Road, Brunswick, ME 04011. Arrangements are under the care of Kincer Funeral Home 130 Pleasant St., Richmond. Tel. 737-4395.