CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Donna Y. Bernardi, 74, passed away on March 19, 2026, at Garden Ranch Assisted Living in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The oldest child of the late Donald and Doris Primmer, she was born on June 20, 1951, and grew up in Clarksburg, Massachusetts. A graduate of Drury High School and the Burbank Hospital School of Nursing, she practiced private duty nursing at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston before returning to the Berkshires to start her family.

Donna remained passionate about providing quality medical care, working as a registered nurse in the Emergency Room at North Adams Regional Hospital for nearly four decades until her retirement.

Elected to serve on the Clarksburg School Committee in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Donna was also an avid reader who promoted love of reading and community as an elected trustee of the Clarksburg Town Library and a member of the Friends of the Clarksburg Town Library until she moved to Colorado.

Donna's greatest source of joy and fulfillment was her family. She raised three fiercely independent children, and she spent her life supporting their varied academic, artistic, and athletic interests. For herself, Donna found a deep and lasting solace in the ocean, traveling to Maine as often as possible to enjoy the salt air, the rocky coast, and the lighthouses. In her 60s, with her children grown, Donna embraced a new opportunity for herself, moving to Colorado Springs to be closer to her daughter Sarah and her family.

Donna is survived by her daughters, Kathryn Barnhardt and her husband, William; Sarah McAfee and her husband, Ryan; and her son, Christopher Bernardi and his wife, Nicole; and her siblings: Beverly Kirby; Suzanne Cahoon and her husband, Wayne; and William Primmer and his wife, Patricia. She leaves her five grandchildren, who were the light of her life: Reed, Chase, and Oliver McAfee, and Gabriel and Josephine Bernardi. There are also many surviving nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews whom Donna adored.

At Donna's request, a small gathering will be held by the ocean for the family at a later date.