Margaret Young

"Peggy" Margaret Young passed away and started her next great adventure joining her husband Bill on March 20, 2025. She was surrounded by her dogs and loved ones after finishing the latest chapter in the book "Adventurer's wanted: Sands of Nezza" by M.L Forman. Peggy lived a very fulfilling life surrounded by lots of love, laughter, and joy.

Her early years were spent growing up in the Jemez Mountains leading a simpler life and meeting the Adams who ultimately became lifelong friends. Peggy, her siblings (Gail, Bob, and Tom), and the Adams attended school in a small one room building where multiple grades held classes together much like they did in stories such as Anne of Green Gables or Little House on the Prairie. She spent all of her free time running around getting into trouble with Liz, Margie, and Freddy Adams. The kids would often be found riding the family horse Genie or getting into other mischief like kids do. After her primary and secondary schooling, Peggy went on to college at BYU in Utah, and then New Mexico Highlands University where she ultimately obtained a Bachelors Degree in Social Work. After dating multiple toads that she finally found her prince charming. Her epic love story started when she met Bill for the first time at Elephant Butte. They were in different friend groups, but, Peggy decided she liked this handsome young beau with a boat. She bravely went over to ask him if he could take her for a ride so she could water ski. Bill told her that unfortunately he was unable to give her a ride because his boat couldn't pull her. Peggy thought this was a jab at her weight (mind you she had an 18 inch waist at the time), however, Bill innocently meant that the boats motor wasn't working thus couldn't pull anyone. Even after this perceived slight Peggy and Bill knew that they were meant to be together and this is where their own love novel began.

Peggy was a shimmy and shaker and loved to get down with her bad self on the dance floor and was particularly fond of square dancing... Bill on the other hand was not a huge fan, however, he loved Peggy so much he would regularly allow himself to be dragged out onto the dance floor. In the early years of marriage, Peggy was a social worker and advocate for disabled children, doing most of her work on reservations around NM. This part of her story was brief, but forever changed her trajectory. She worked with many parents and foster parents of disabled children teaching them how to advocate and get services for their children which would help them to thrive. Even after she no longer worked formally as a Social Worker, she learned that this piece of her story would remain prevalent. Peggy and Bill had their first child Leon in the early 70's and life remained busy for the young couple, they were active in their local church, masons, eastern stars, and other activities which kept them on their toes... four kids later... Peggy and Bill's epic love story continued and had blessed them with a total of five children, one boy and four girls. Peggy's former career came back into play or their third child Andrea who is disabled requiring extensive care. Peggy has always been a voice for those who were unable to speak or advocate for themselves, and would freely give any knowledge and help to anyone who needed it.

Having a very large family, Peggy had to learn to be creative with her meal planning. She quickly found that letting food go to waste was not an option, so Peggy came up with her famous "Mommy Surprise" meal which consisted of leftovers from the fridge to make a casserole of some sort.. Mommy Surprise was not one our favorites, and although it was sometimes very delicious, there were the other times where you had to plug your nose to eat it. She quickly became a master cook for her family, and could cook Gordon Ramsay level meals, however, the one illustrious dish that evaded her skills were the dreaded Thanksgiving rolls. For many years she battled with this nemesis and for many a Thanksgiving dinner either in Arizona or New Mexico with the Stevens the perfect golden dinner roll evaded her capture. Peggy would burn the rolls to a crisp.. literally.. they often resembled hockey pucks, and as such the Stevens would always burn a roll in Peggy's honor if they cooked the meal so she would not feel so bad!! Although Peggy wasn't the best roll maker, her made from scratch meals were to die for! And, as time consuming as her family was, Peggy still found a way to carve out time for the hobbies and things she loved doing most... One such hobby was reading. Peggy was someone who loved to read. She would read so much that short of a bomb going off you could not get her nose out of the pages of her most recent Smutty love novel. Most of her books came from the library, but due to the sheer number of books she read, she could never remember which books she had previously checked out. To help her remember she devised an ingenious system which consisted of little "X's" drawn on the top corner of the back cover of the books. Library visits were often a very time consuming adventure.

 We could go on and on about this woman and how she made a huge impact on all of the lives she touched, but this would be a 50 page thesis and there is a word limit. She will be sorely missed and leaves behind 4 of her children (Leon, Andrea, Margareta, and Charlene), son-in-law (Jorge) grandchildren (Emma, Abby, Liam), Brother (Bob), sisters-in-law (Liz, Deb, Eugina, and Donna), Brothers-in-law (Bob and Steve), nieces and nephews (David, Peter, Katrina, Andrew, Matt, Tammy, Julie, Christie, Catherine, andJustin), most importantly her dogs (Anna and Maya), and many other friends and family that love her dearly. She was preceded in death by her parents (Marge and Oscar), Siblings (Gail and Tom), Handsome Beau and Epic Love Story Husband (Bill), Oldest Daughter (Nicky), and several friends (Margie, Sandy, Barb, Mary, Carol, and Ken) and so many more we may have forgotten to mention who were awaiting her to join them in the great after party of her Adventures of Life! She will be forever missed but definitely not forgotten! She was one amazing lady who we love!!!

In lieu of flowers please donate to Special Olympics NM

https://support.specialolympics.org/a/give-in-your-state?gclid=674d6fb98f8a146cdca307b653435cee&gclsrc=3p.ds&&state=nm&sourceid=1041176&ms=bing-newmexico&gclid=674d6fb98f8a146cdca307b653435cee&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=674d6fb98f8a146cdca307b653435cee&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=New%20Mexico&utm_term=special%20olympics%20new%20mexico&utm_content=Brand%20-%20State-Specific%20Exact%20Match