Margaret Mara Noonan, ("Meg"), passed away peacefully on February 16, 2010, surrounded by her family at the home of her parents, John and Helen Noonan. She was 35 years old and had fought a courageous battle, suffering from a brain tumor since 2002.An alumna of Pomperaug High School, Meg went on to graduate from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia with a bachelor's degree in marketing in 1996. Immediately upon graduation, she was employed as a pharmaceutical consultant for Barnett International. In 2002 she was stricken with an astrocytoma and moved back to Connecticut. Undergoing her first brain surgery that year, she returned to school in 2003 to pursue an additional degree, and a life changing career in nursing. She graduated from Quinnipiac University with her nursing degree in 2007. In the interim, the tumor returned and she underwent a second brain surgery as well as six months of radiation treatment. Still, she passed her NCLEX exam and began working at Blythedale Children's Hospital as a pediatric nurse. She joyfully worked there until stricken again with a resurgence of the tumor in April, 2009. She underwent two additional brain surgeries in May and began chemotherapy in June of 2009.Through all of this she was joyful and positive and never complained. Her greatest strengths were her smile and her laughter and her ability to make others laugh. Her sense of loyalty to family and friends was inspiring and the number of those who reached out to her throughout her illness was even more inspiring. Meg touched many and her love of life was as contagious as her laugh. She loved many, and in return, was loved even more. Her presence in a room was both spiritual and human. Part of that presence is now gone. Physically, she will be missed, but her spirit will remain forever with all she knew.The Noonan family is particularly indebted to the doctors and nursing staff at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who worked and fought so hard for her, and to Connecticut Hospice who treated her so kindly and with all of the respect which was due to her. The outpouring of love and well wishes from friends far and near was overwhelming. Aside from her parents, she leaves her sister Bridget and her husband William DeRiso as well as her nephews Dylan and Blake (godsons) and niece Kelsey of Darien, her brother John and his wife Gretchen and her nephew Tobias of Portland, Maine and her brother Brendan and his wife Katie of Norwalk. She is also survived by her maternal grandmother Helen English Burns, as well as 12 aunts and uncles (including her godparents Frank English and Elizabeth English) and numerous cousins from both the Noonan and English families.

Memorials: In lieu of flowers donations can be made in the name of Margaret Noonan to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Neuro-Oncology Research Fund. Dr. Lisa DeAngelis 1275 York Avenue, Room C 732 New York, NY 10065.

Cemetery: Pine Hill Cemetery

Location: Munson-Lovetere Woodbury

Funeral: St. Teresa's Church

Services: A mass of Christian burial will be at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Woodbury on Friday, February 19 at 10: 00AM . Burial will be at Pine Hill Cemetery in Southbury immediately after the mass.

Visitation: Visiting hours will be at Munson-Lovetere Funeral Home , 2 School St., in Woodbury on Thursday, February 18 from 2: 00 to 4: 00 and 6: 00 to 8: 00 pm.