Emma June Snyder, aged 91, passed away peacefully at home on Friday, October 16, 2026. Just the week before she had spent a beautiful Autumn day with many of her surviving family. They are Lynn Pachowicz, Phyllis Moser-Koogle, Julia Thomas, Greta Moser-Steiner, Bradly Moser, Constance Maggard, Marla Moser-Harp, and Emily Moser. As well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She is sadly predeceased by her children Brian Moser, Jeffrey Moser, and Lora Crawford.
She lived with her son Bradly, lovingly cared for by her daughters Julie and Connie and son-in-law Van. Her daughters Phyllis, Greta, Marla, Emily and son-in-law Serge helped out as well. Emma enjoyed good health and a comfortable, cherished old-age.
The daughter of Althea Josephine Snyder (Bernard) and Ellis Elwood Snyder, she was born on a large farm in the mountains of western Maryland in Grantsville. There were 13 children. After 5 boys, she was the first girl and doted on. Some referred to her as ‘the pretty one’ but she never liked that. She thought all her sisters were pretty. It was a hard life on a working farm in the harsh winters there. She very much loved, and was loved in return by her Mother and Father. A very good student, she enjoyed learning, reading and music. She is predeceased by all but two of her siblings, Joyce Hill of Greensburg, Pa and Wilma Friend of Gary, Indiana.
For 32 years she was married to Edwin Lee Moser of Carmichaels, Pa. They had eleven children together, and lived in Pittsburgh and Ohio before settling in lovely Frederick County Maryland. There she enjoyed working as a companion for many of the wealthy dowagers on their country farm-estates.
Later remarried to Joseph Lamonica, they moved to Littlestown, Pa. She continued caregiving as a profession and truly enjoyed it. She loved to hear her patients’ stories and to sing songs they knew. She also enjoyed traveling with her truck-driver husband. She especially loved her visits to coastal Maine with him and later, just her daughters. Another treat were the many winters she spent in sunny, lovely Sarasota Florida with her daughter Marla.
For many years she lived happily with her daughter Emily and son-in-law Sergey Podturkin, from Russia, who she loved to tease and talk about Russian history. She then rented from her friend Jackie White of Gettysburg, before finally settling into a home provided by her daughter Connie and son in law Van Maggard, also in Gettysburg Pa. They lived right beside each other and shared much. For a while her sister Phyllis came to stay with her and that was a treasured time.
Emma loved quaint Gettysburg and was a respected member of the Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses there. She was a deeply spiritual person and an avid student of the Bible as well as History. She had also been a member of the Frederick congregation and had loving friends there as well as in Florida. She was valued for her insight into the scriptures as well as her first hand experience of the deep pain, sorrow, and struggle of life on earth. Emma was of the Anointed which meant she had a ‘heavenly hope’ and partook in the yearly commemoration of Jesus’ death. It was the most serious aspect of her life.
A whole book could be written about her with chapters both good and bad. She was deeply spiritual but also full of an earthy humor and mirth and loved to laugh. She was beautiful without being vain, feminine, never vulgar. She was incredibly kind to the downtrodden but we all felt the sting of her judgment at times. She was fierce. Though a small woman she stood up for herself and others and spoke her mind against misogyny and wrongdoing and backward thinking, even though it stoked resentment and even fists. She was a good judge of character and spoke her mind. She did her best as a Mother and provider. Deeply loved, she is already missed. Within hours of her passing, a huge, colorful and perfectly formed rainbow appeared outside her door, though there had been no rain. It brings comfort to those of us who loved her.
The Monahan Funeral Home is assisting the family with funeral arrangements. They are planning a memorial service at a later time.