Margaret Anne Scandurra-Fex's Obituary
Margaret Anne Scandurra Fex passed away peacefully at home on March 13th, 2021. She was 61 years old. Known to most as Maggie, she was the youngest of 3 children to Pippo and Jane Scandurra (Peters) and was born in San Mateo, California on February 16th, 1960.
She was raised in San Mateo and graduated from Hillsdale High School in 1978 with many fond memories. She enjoyed participating in the arts program and was a beautiful artist on many mediums. She was very proud of being the makeup artist for the school play, winning awards for not just her art work but a few for her journalistic talents too.
Maggie had an insatiable love for reading, but not for the basic novel or fiction variety. Her home was always filled with obscure books on botany, internal medicine and old medical journals. Her photographic memory lent itself to this learning, and if you’d ever ventured outdoors with her, she would point out a pretty tree, flower or shrub and know the Latin name
for it, what family it originated from as well as any possible medical properties it had for the human body.
In the early 80s, she met and starting dating her future husband, Jim Fex. After a few years of contemplating what she wanted to do for a career and with much encouragement from Jim, Maggie decided to go back to school. She knew she wanted to help people, relished studying medicine and how the body worked so it was a natural fit for her to pursue a Nursing degree.
With determination she pursued scholarships and grants and with hard work she graduated from the College of San Mateo in 1990 and soon began working for San Mateo Chope Hospital as a Registered Emergency Room Nurse. Known as the “White Tornado”, she truly loved working in the fast paced environment of the ER and helping people in their time of need. Her brilliant sense of humor and calm demeanor during chaos was a perfect fit.
Maggie saved many lives during this time and through empathy and caring she affected many more. In June of 1991, she and Jim were married in Maui with his children, Christian and Carla, as witnesses and shortly after bought a beautiful home in Guerneville on Merry Lane. She was a devoted and loving companion to him for 19 years, taking care of him through his lung cancer until he passed away in her arms in 2001.
After being widowed, her own health issues took front and center attention. Years before she started suffering from the many symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, fibromyalgia and bouts of deep depression. She found little help from the medical experts she consulted with through the years. Luckily she met a wonderful partner in Robert Sowders in 2003. Before her health cratered from fibromyalgia, CFS as well as COPD, they enjoyed traveling the world together for his work. He was there for her in her debilitating physical pain and depression and she was most lovingly appreciative of all of his kindness and support. Maggie passed away in Bob's arms knowing she was loved and cherished.
She is survived by her brother Michael, his children Erik and Amy, as well as her sister Lisa and her only child, Francesco. She is also survived by her stepchildren, Christian Fex and Carla (Fex) Taylor and their families. She will be remembered for her affection for cats, quick wit, love of laughter and steadfast loyalty to those who loved her.
Maggie enjoyed creating “mad-libs” for her sister Lisa and spent many hours laughing with her about the hilarious word play they created. She was able to connect with her sister this way through laughter when she was bedridden and it gave her peace.
Truly a kind, caring and good person through and through, a bright soul that will exist in our memories forever.
Memorial contributions in Maggie’s memory can be sent to the Peninsula Humane Society where she met some of her dearest feline friends. https://phs-spca.org/donate/
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