Affia Mary Snigaroff-MacDonald

CHESAEPAKE – Affia MacDonald passed peacefully, surrounded by family, on September 21, 2022 at age 89. Affia was born on Atka, Alaska on March 14, 1933 to loving parents Andrew Snigaroff and Mary Prokopeuff. She spent her early years in her Village of Atka up until WWII when she and her family were interned at Killisnoo. Post WWII she was taken to Mt. Edgecomb Boarding School where she completed her schooling. Afterwards, she traveled to Oklahoma to attending nursing school and met her husband Walter. The two were wed and had four children and many adventures together. Affia had a long career as a critical care nurse and always enjoyed the company of family and friends. She was an avid reader, enjoyed gardening, attending church, loved dancing, and was proud of her Unangax heritage. Above all, she loved her family. She always showed up for those she loved and poured herself into everyone. She clung tightly to fond memories of her life and loved ones before her. She gave gentleness and warmth openly to all.  She was a small woman in stature, but a huge woman in heart. She loved, she loved deeply. She embodied the words of wisdom imparted on her in childhood by her mother, “no matter where you go in life, always try to leave it a little better then when you came”. Her legacy will always be leaving everyone who she came in contact with a little better.

She was proceeded in death by her parents, Andrew and Mary Snigaroff; her siblings, Teresa, Nikolai, Clara, Mike, Olena, Annie Marie, and Angelina.

Left to cherish her memory are her loving husband of 65 years, Walter L. MacDonald; children, Judith MacDonald and her husband Michael Spellman of Ramona, CA, Teresa and the late Ken Bruce of Tucson, AZ, Mary Jean and James Dickson of Norfolk, VA, and Michael MacDonald of Chesapeake; grandchildren, Michael, Tatiana, Mark, Matthew, Erin, Angela, Ashley, Sara, Caitlin, Natasha, and Jade;  great grandchildren, Alexis, Kyle, Michael, Xavier, Sydney, Amelia, Kimimela, and Roland; and a countless number of other family and friends.