Obituary for Victoria Borgerding

Victoria Ann Borgerding (Snyder) died Tuesday January 7 at her Westerville home.

Victoria was born February 10, 1950, in Millersburg, Ohio, the oldest of five children. She is a graduate of West Holmes High School (1968). She was a varsity cheerleader and excelled in academics. She worked at the Village Restaurant and as a lifeguard and swim instructor at Millersburg Pool. Upon graduation she traveled Western Europe for 10 weeks with 2 close friends. She attended Ohio State University, where she was on the synchronized swimming team and studied English. She met her husband, Tom, in a Western Civilization class on the first day of winter quarter, January 1969. The two were married in an outdoor, early morning ceremony at OSU’s Mirror Lake on June 12, 1971.

Victoria was witness to the late 1960s campus turmoil.

After college she worked at Ohio National Bank and at Shoppers Charge in Columbus and later in the emergency room at Middletown Regional Hospital as a ward clerk. She and Tom started their family in 1974 . As a mother, Victoria made a point to read widely on topics of child development. She believed children thrive best when they are “breast-fed and well-read,” starting with Beatrix Potter and Dr. Seuss and later Shakespeare, Faulkner, Hemingway, Welty and Cather. She lead a chapter group of La Leche League International in the mid-1970s in Middletown, Ohio, and believed strongly in the importance of the mother-child bond starting with natural childbirth. Of her four children, the two youngest were born at home.

During the last 34 years of her life she battled mental illness to a draw through tyranny of will. She never allowed dismissal of her case even during times of her “crazy sorrow.” During the last year of her life, some new treatments helped her mental health take a significant turn for the better, and she enjoyed a period of clear-mindedness. She shared laughter and smiles with her children, grandchildren and siblings.

Victoria is preceded in death by her mother, Mosella Snyder (Wengerd). She is survived by her father, Victor Snyder, her husband, Tom, and her four children and their families: Alyson Helwagen and daughter Alexandra; son Andrew and wife Heather (Stewart) and their children Jakob, Callen, and Evie; son Alexander and wife Dalia Gomez and their daughters Elia and Vivienne; and daughter Ann and husband Jess Goldfarb and their daughter Charlisse. She is also survived by four brothers, Dwight Snyder, Eric Snyder and wife Pennie, Brent Snyder and wife Barb, and Craig Snyder.

Calling hours are 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday January 13 at Hill Funeral Home, 220 S. State St. , Westerville Ohio. Funeral Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday January 14 at St. Paul Catholic Church, 313 N. State Street, Westerville Ohio. Burial is at Blendon Central Cemetery, 6360 S. Hempstead Road, Westerville.