Alpha E. Schuszler, 70, of Hampton, left this earth to join her Heavenly Father on Monday, Nov. 11, 2013.

Born in Newport News, she attended elementary school locally and at the age of 12 went to the Central Virginia Training Center in Madison Heights, Va., for 20 years. Upon her return, she was her mother’s dedicated helper at the Thrift Store she operated for the “Area Panel for Childhood Needs.” She worked in the kitchen at Sarah Bonwell Hudgins and was a client with the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board Creative Options Program which she considered “her school.”

She was very active with crafts including making pot holders and hooking rugs, and enjoyed Bingo and working jigsaw puzzles. She was a resident at Coliseum Park Nursing Home for 22 years. Her family appreciates the loving care shown to her during this time. Her family was her happiness and she was theirs.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Anton and Rosemary Lamphier Schuszler; two brothers, James Lamphier Schuszler and Joseph Schuszler, and a brother-in-law, Robert W. Styron. Survivors include her brother, Anton Schuszler, II and his wife Linda of Yorktown; five sisters, Anna Styron of Alpharetta, Ga., Magdalene Strawsnyder and her husband William of Hampton, Marie Schuszler of Williamsburg, and Martina Mays and her husband Bruce, and Juli Schuszler Semanski and her husband Joseph, all of Gloucester, and her sister-in-law, Laurie Schuszler of Davenport, Iowa. She will also be missed by numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, 2013, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church by Msgr. Robert Perkins. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the mass at church. Private inurnment will take place at a later date.

Memorials may be made to the Special Olympics, 3212 Skipwith Road, Suite 100, Richmond, Va. 23294-4413 or Eggleston Services, Attn: Donations, 1161 Ingleside Road, Norfolk, Va. 23502.

Arrangements by Berceuse Funeral and Cremation Traditions, Hampton.