Paula Legere

Legere, Paula, 81, born to Paul Sustek and Catherine (“Boots”) Lakotta on February 12, 1945, in Brooklyn, NY. Transitioned back into life eternal on May 6, 2026 at 9:50AM.

As a young child, her parents moved her and her older brother Donald, first to Pennsauken, NJ and shortly thereafter to Cherry Hill, NJ. It was in Cherry Hill where she grew up.

Much later in life, Paula moved to Center City, Philadelphia, where she lived for thirty-five years. In “Philly,” she became a patron of all arts, a certified “Foodie,” as she dove into every aspect of city life except sports!

Raised in a Roman Catholic household, even though she was baptized as a Ukrainian Catholic, spiritual (not necessarily religious) growth gradually became the most important focus of her life. But before all that, she was to travel across Europe, be courted by gentlemen far and wide, win dance contests, and bedazzle the world with her stunning eastern European beauty.

At twenty-three years of age, she married Thomas Wilson. From that union, two children were born, Renée (Quaranta) and Thomas Joseph (TJ). She had a strong lifetime bond with both of her children. There were four grandchildren: Mackenzie, Rocco, Kelsey and Josie, along with nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. Paula was loved by them for her compassionate manner, her wisdom, as well as her generosity of spirit.

In her late twenties, Paula had a full blown, spiritual awakening. At first, this meant a return to Catholicism, the religion of her birth. But later, feeling that she had “overflowed the container” of her upbringing, she found different ways to explore and express the greatness of universal truth. Initially, one of the first and most distinctive ways that she expressed her wordless and mystical awakening was to practice and teach something called “liturgical dance.” Paula would be invited to scores of churches to do what very, very few women dared to do in those days: to use her total being to praise God in a formal church setting. She was known far and wide for her unique and courageous way of proclaiming the glory of God through dance. There, and everywhere, she was poetry in motion. If anyone had any doubts about the propriety of such expression, her reverent and humble manner was often sufficient to move people to tears.

Later, Paula shared her gift of spiritual dance by teaching young girls in Catholic grammar school to express themselves proudly to praise God in dance. For many of these girls, this was a life changing event that helped them, for the first time, to feel included in worshipping God publicly, not in spite of their female nature, but proudly, with the bodies and souls that God gave them.

The young Paula had been classically trained in ballet. As an adult, she did not walk; she glided. It was said of her that she could fall down the stairs and look graceful in doing so. She never ran nor hurried; when she entered a room, all eyes gravitated towards her. It was not the entrance of a movie star but of a goddess.

While her attire was neither expensive nor flashy, people would always stop her, whether she was at the opera or at Wawa, to tell her how much they loved her dress or her shoes or her sunglasses or her scarf. Those who were with her learned to get used to it. She could go out wearing her pajamas and would always look beautiful and regal. She just could not stop sowing beauty wherever she went. She never lived in a house; it quickly became a temple. There were statutes of goddesses and images of angels everywhere. However, there was little to no evidence that a man lived in the house. It was always a celebration of the feminine aspect of humanity.

Here is one example of her impulse to create beauty no matter the cost. Just married to Tom Legere, she noticed his bookcases, carefully dividing books by subject matter. She unilaterally decided to make an “improvement.” When Tom returned one day from teaching, he could not help but notice that all of his beloved books had been rearranged. When he asked Paula what this was about, she replied that she had rearranged the books and separated them to make them color coordinated.

Another true story: whenever she left the house, she would of course, turn out the lights. But she left music on. “Why,” she was asked? “It welcomes the angels in” was her reply.

As a result of her impulse to create beauty, whatever she created, in painting, in the arranging of flowers, in the decoration of seashells, in the amazing broaches that she designed, (all of which she would give away), all of these activities and more were done with unmistakable feminine energy.

Her important relationships in life were always based upon the three attributes of God: goodness, truth and beauty. She loved everyone, but she had a very difficult time understanding things like cruelty or war or politics or sports. She and her husband had separate Netflix channels.

On one occasion, it seemed that she might, perhaps, be somewhat interested in basketball. After a 76’ers game, her first, she said that she enjoyed the game a bit. When asked why, she replied, “The ball was big I could see it better.” That was her last attendance at a basketball game.

The one exception to her lack of interest in sports had to do with watching her grandson Rocco play baseball. She had no clue as to what was happening during the game, but she cheered whenever we told her that he had done something good, which always seemed to happen when she was in attendance.

These words are being written on Mother’s Day. As a mother, she always gave it her best, even though she thought that she could have done better. Renée and TJ would respectfully disagree. Her daughter Renée and son TJ would frequently be told by their friends that they wished that they had a mother as “cool” and unconditionally loving as Paula was.

As a grandparent, however, Paula was without a doubt, even to herself, totally dedicated in her new role. Due to unique circumstances, Paula made it her top priority, the most important call that God was asking of her, to take care of Mackenzie, and then Rocco, by picking them up after school, giving them snacks, and be a loving grandmother five days a week.

During her thirties, Paula became a single parent. She then graduated as a licensed practical nurse, a certified wholistic health counselor, a teacher of yoga, a meditation leader, a licensed massage practitioner, and, finally, an ordained interfaith minister.

Her spiritual ministry eventually included officiating at scores of weddings, along with baby blessings and funerals, always in a calm, loving and joyful manner.

In 1993, when she was almost fifty years of age, she married Thomas Legere, who had served as a Catholic priest for twenty-three years. Together, they practiced what they called “the priesthood of the future,” a couple, combining their God given gifts, bringing out the best in one another. Their goal was to help those who were ready for a deeper, more authentic relationship with God. Paula and Tom enjoyed and shared thirty-three years in a spiritual partnership, the same number of years that Jesus walked upon the earth.

COVID almost took Paula way from us, but she continued to live life with all the vibrancy and joy that she could muster. A combination of kidney, lung and heart failure eventually wore her down. She was fully compliant with all her wonderful doctors at Pennsylvania Hospital, but she finally reached a moment of surrender. A 911 close call that left her minutes away from death was the definitive answer from God. It was time for her to fearlessly take that next step into whatever awaited her on her spiritual journey. In some ways, her last weeks on earth were her most glorious ones.

She entered Hospice, and under the great care of the loving servants from Samaritan Hospice, along with daily, faithful, generous, inspiring care from her daughter Renée and her granddaughter Mackenzie, Paula exuded peace and serenity to the very end.

This was to be her final lesson, to teach others, not with her words, but by her utter lack of fear of what the world calls “dying,” but she truly saw as a “transformation.”

Paula would often say words to the effect of “If God has always been there until now, why would we think that this will change when our current form changes?” When asked what she thought life would be like on the other side, she would say, “I have no expectations. Expectation is the source of all suffering. I welcome whatever God has in store.”

Visitors during hospice marveled at her serenity and aura of peacefulness. During this time, she experienced an absolute onslaught of flowers, letters and various forms of loving expression from scores of friends both far and wide. It was almost overwhelming.

On her seventieth birthday, all sides of her family had been invited to list the qualities that they said they most admired in her. Here is what they came up with. “Spiritual, caring, graceful, dancer, passionate, wise, open-minded, consoling, creative, warm, assertive, healer, mother, talented, friend, soothing, heart, regal, culture, interested, loving, understanding, aunt, strong, compassionate, wife, giving, open and empathetic.”

No doubt you have our own memories. In any event, a truly extraordinary human being, although she never thought so.

She will be missed greatly on planet earth, although there have already been a number of Paula “sightings.” But one thing is certain: she will be welcomed to a new life by choirs of angels, images of whom decorated every corner of her home!

Godspeed, Beautiful Paula!

In accord with her wishes, there will be no ceremony. Her earthly remains have been cremated for reasons of ecology and spirituality. If anyone would like to do anything, let it be a random act of kindness.