Melissa Kathleen Roach

After a lengthy battle with cancer, Melissa Kathleen Roach passed away on July 13, 2024. A loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, she is survived by her husband, Dennis Roach; her three children, Cara Hobbs and her partner, Michael Sherrod; Krystal Hobbs; and Robert Hobbs and his wife, Rudine. Melissa's grandchildren were the light in her eyes - Julianna and Matthew Sleik, Orlando Sherrod, Summer Moon, Diondre Reyes and his partner, Kate Sanchez, Maliya Reyes and Johndre Reyes, Airman Basic Robert Hobbs, Jr., Zariah Ward, Aryanna Hobbs, John Hobbs; and a great-granddaughter, Aniveah Engle. She is also survived by her sister, Debbie Griesser and brother-in-law, Dennis Greisser, and sister-in-law, Linda Miller, of Lockport, NY.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to St. Jude Children's Hospital , a cause Melissa supported.

Gone From My Sight
by Henry Van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."
Gone where?
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"
And that is dying...

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