Obituary of Sandra Lee Pena

Sandra “Sandy” Lee Pena The life of a wonderful woman was cut short when Sandy Pena, 64, of Stockton Springs, Maine, died on Thursday at age 64 due to head injuries sustained during a fall the previous day. Sandy met her husband, Dennis “Eric” Pena, in 1973 while he was a student at Oregon State University and she was employed in the OSU Microbiology Department. They married on March 17, 1974, at the First Baptist Church in Corvallis. On St. Patrick’s Day they would have celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary. Sandy and Eric moved to California one month after the wedding when he got a job at Pacific Gas & Electric Company in San Francisco. They raised a wonderful family and lived in various locations throughout the state over the next 36 years. She loved the majesty of the redwood trees as well as strolling along the beach on stormy days when the waves were at their largest. She was always a very good student, graduating from Corvallis High School near the top of her class and the College of the Redwoods, Eureka, California, where she excelled and was selected as class valedictorian but declined because she was too shy. As somewhat of an adventure, she and Eric moved cross-country after he retired in 2010. They picked mid-coast Maine as a retirement spot because of the combination of forest, ocean and, yes, cold. She absolutely loved the wintertime. Sandy and Eric also enjoyed travel and they visited numerous countries in Europe. She also played a mean game of trivia, read voraciously, and watched at least one vintage movie a day. She also had an adventurous side. In her younger years she took flying lessons, and two bucket list items she never got to were sky-diving and bungee jumping. She was predeceased by her father, Wes Harms; mother Dorothy (Fast) Harms who died in 2015 at the age of 99; and infant granddaughter, Nicole Pettijohn. Sandy is survived by her husband, Eric of Stockton Springs, Maine; children Craig Pena and wife Jenn of Eagle Point, and Erica Pettijohn and partner Chris Wilson of Eureka, California; grandchildren Nathan Pena-O’Meara, and Joshua and Nicholas Pettijohn; siblings Wanette Richards and husband Gary of Monmouth, and Darryl Harms and wife Pat of Corvallis; sisters-in-law Bernice Lindseth of Lebanon and Diane Earl of San Francisco; long-time friends from childhood Marie Haindel from Gresham and Cathy Haffner-Bender from Seattle, Washington; and numerous cousins, nephews and nieces. Services will be held privately at the convenience of the family. Arrangements are under the care of Riposta Funeral Home, 182 Waldo Avenue, Belfast, Maine. Memories and condolences may be shared at www.ripostafh.com.