Priscilla “Bunny” Hafner (née Fayer), 84, of Plymouth, Mass., formerly of Toronto, Canada, passed away surrounded by love on March 14.
Bunny was born on Sept. 24, 1930 in New York City to Amelia and Charles Fayer. When her father died a year later, her mother, a registered nurse who had to continue to work, sent Bunny to live with her grandparents on their farm in Skowhegan. This lasted only until Bunny went through her first year at the one-room schoolhouse and she was overheard using inappropriate language by her mother. Bunny then began her boarding school odyssey when she was sent at the age of six to St. Faith’s School for Girls in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., followed by high school at Northfield in Massachusetts, and then on to Cornell University where she graduated in 1951. Bunny returned to NYC and worked for a landscape architect firm. It was on the tennis courts of Flushing, Queens, where she met Harold Hafner, a dashing WWII veteran and young textile executive at his family company; they married in 1953.
Bunny and Harold were partners for 41 years that included three children, six dogs, one horse, two rabbits, six cats, one parakeet, and 10 houses in five states and two countries — until Harold’s death in 1994 from cancer. Their children are convinced that he only held on until the new car he’d bought for his B arrived.
She was a true friend, guide, mentor (and occasionally combatant) of her children, in-laws, nieces and nephews and those non-family whom she made part of her family. While a woman of strong opinions, she was a woman full of equally strong love. And laughter.
Bunny was also a Renaissance woman with a ferocious curiosity about everything and a passion for getting or doing it (or being) right: from designing welcoming homes, stunning gardens, amazing faux painted walls, floors, and furniture to understanding history (she went for her master’s degree in History at University of Toronto) and taking German, French and Italian; from being among the first to master French and Italian cooking via Julia Child and Marcella Hazan to throwing dinner parties (that are still talked about) and dancing until the wee hours. She was a fearless traveler, and when Harold’s enthusiasm for travel lessened, off she went with girlfriends to Greece, Egypt and Kenya. As a widow, Bunny continued to revel in new adventures, from dogsledding in the Yukon to observing Operation Migration in action.
She gave her tremendous organizational skills and energy to work in support of groups including the National Ballet School of Canada, hospice, and a boat-building trade school in Maine; and she was a relentless supporter of the environment through groups like Ecojustice (Canada) and Project Puffin/Audubon Society (Maine).
As much as she adored Toronto, her home for almost 40 years, Bunny’s heart belonged on the coast of Maine at the beautiful summer (and fall) home she created there. It is where her children and their families feel the full extent of her love for them and so much of what she loved in life.
Bunny fought Alzheimer’s with the same tremendous strength she had used to accomplish so much else.
Bunny is survived by her children, Gordon (Nancy) of McLean, Va., Eric (Paul Carchidi) of Brockton, Mass., and Lise (Michael Endler) of Loudonville, N.Y.; and grandchildren, Daria and Carly Hafner, and Jeffrey and Kit Endler.
A funeral service will be held at 12 p.m., Sat., March 21 at Christ Church Episcopal, 149 Court St., Plymouth, Mass. A celebration of her life will be held in the summer.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her name to Ecojustice (Canada) www.ecojustice.ca; Project Puffin projectpuffin.audubon.org; or Beacon Hospice’s Christien Foundation, 32 Resnick Rd., Plymouth, MA 02360. If flowers must be sent, please, no carnations.
