Andrea Camille Kotora
Andrea Camille Kotora, 63, died Thursday, December 31, 2020, after a brief battle with pneumonia.
She is survived by her brother, Tim and wife Robin of Nolensville, Tenn.; sister Jenny and husband Jeff of Apex, N.C.; and her beloved nephews.
Parents Andrew and Marjorie Kotora; and brother Lanny Kotora predeceased her, as did the many dogs and cats she loved throughout her life.
Andrea lived in or near Washington almost her entire life. After graduating from Trinity High, she helped supervise adults at a sheltered workshop. When we’d pick her up from work at the end of the day, she’d come out tired but laughing and joking with the adults who worked there. They loved her. After the workshop closed, she worked only briefly before becoming totally disabled herself.
She lived at home with our parents and cared for them until their deaths in 2008. A few years after that she moved to a domiciliary care home, where she lived with a few other adults and received the extra help she needed. There she lived quietly for the rest of her life.
For someone so withdrawn, she made a difference to many people. Her housemates became another family, especially Bonnie and Tracey. Her church family was a lifelong support to her. They showed her she was loved, and she returned that love, trying to give back and help others. She was especially good with children, teaching many Sunday school classes and always making friends with the little ones. Even before COVID closed in, she began sending greeting cards each week to anyone she knew who had a birthday or was sick or lonely. Losing her leaves a giant hole in many hearts.
That’s especially true for us in her family. For her nephews, she was the aunt who adored them from the first. She made sure they had the best books and toys, reading with them in her lap when they were together, showering them with attention at every chance. She came to visit with family and spoke with us as often as possible, even as she got more and more sick these last years. She was one of the bravest people I will ever know, the playmate of our childhood, the confidante of our adult lives, the one who kept trying to take care of other people regardless of her own state.
A memorial service will be scheduled when travel and gatherings are again possible.
Her nurses, social workers and doctors at Washington Hospital were professional and extra caring. They are truly heroes in the midst of this pandemic.
In lieu of flowers, please direct any donations to the hospital or to the Washington Area Humane Society in Eighty Four. Andrea loved her rescue dogs and cats.
We will love and miss her forever.
Arrangements are entrusted to William G. Neal Funeral Homes, Ltd., Washington.
Additional information and guest book are available at www.NealFuneralHome.com.