Elizabeth J. Gilbert.

Elizabeth Jane Gilbert entered this world surrounded by love on November 5, 2015 and left her loved ones heartbroken and eternally thankful for the gift of her life when she passed unexpectedly at home on Saturday, July 21, 2018. The youngest of a large, lively family, Elizabeth emanated peace and filled rooms with a gentle joy, earning her the moniker of “Buddha Baby” (though she preferred the self-designated title of Pumpkin Queen). She had an uncanny knack for making fast friends of total strangers, who would express awe at the sheer presence of this tiny, luminous cluster of stardust.

Elizabeth spoke clearly in full sentences and took great pride in her tender but meaningful accomplishments: singing songs in such perfect tune that adults could recognize them without lyrics, learning to swim across the pool in her life vest, and, as of very recently, using the potty all alone for the first time.

Elizabeth’s infectious laugh will ring forever in the minds of her parents Nicole McGuire and Tom Gilbert; siblings Catherine Elaine Cheatle, Dorothy Rose Gilbert, Rosemary Elizabeth Gilbert, and William Tesla Leedskalnin Gilbert; niece Dia Louis Gilbert; grandmother and best friend Jennifer McGuire; great-grandmother and namesake Elizabeth Jane Root; paternal grandfather Forrest McGuire; paternal grandparents Kathleen Gilbert and Thomas Gilbert; great-grandmother Barbara Page; aunts and uncles Aimee Gilbert, Ashley Gilbert, Rosa and William Fox, Bryan and Anna Root, Jesse McGuire, Amy Caito, and Craig Gupton; and cousins Frances, Natalie, Olivia, Tyler, Ava, JoJo, Nicolas, Gia, Lilly, El, and Killian.

Elizabeth was welcomed warmly into the great mystery beyond by great-grandparents Richard Root, Mata McGuire, and Odell McGuire; great-great grandmother, Doris Root; and great aunts, Melanie Gupton and Maggie Meenan. Family and friends are invited to celebrate this sweet life with a funeral mass at 11:00am on Monday, July 30, 2018 at St. James Catholic Church, 17 Whig Street, Trumansburg. Burial will immediately follow in the natural section of St. James Cemetery in Trumansburg