When Robin Titterington was a pre-schooler, one of her older brothers was doing push-ups in the family room. Imitating him, she started doing push-ups, too.
The moment was captured on a family movie, as were birthday celebrations of a typical childhood, including her enjoying her mother’s homemade chocolate mayonnaise cake.
Titterington loved a wide circle of friends from undergraduate and graduate school, her work, her church and various communities to which she was attached. She loved her two dogs and two cats, that she called her “furries,” and a a hummingbird she called Chloe, who showed up at her house every year.
She was a scholar, with an undergraduate degree from St. Andrews Presbyterian College and a master’s from New York University. She also was a devoted worker for people with disabilities. Titterington was an avid traveler and a great driver. She was a singer, if not always an on-tune, friends said, who loved to sing Beatles and James Taylor songs.
All these things defined Titterington, she once said, but way down on the list, if at all, would have been the word “disabled.”
While she could do push ups in imitation of her big brother, she was never able to walk. She was born with spina bifida and used a wheelchair her entire life. She also became deaf, losing her hearing at 19.
Titterington was not defined by the disabilities, her friends said. They remembered a strong woman with a big heart, a dynamo who refused to feel sorry for herself and devoted her life to helping other people.
Robin Jane Titterington, 61, died Feb. 23, 2016, at Piedmont Hospital from complications from pneumonia, a collapsed lung and an infection. She left a a legion of devoted friends who said their lives will forever be shaped by her indomitable spirit.
“She was a mighty mite,” said close friend Billy Howard. Titterington was barely four feet tall but had a spirit that soared infinitely, friends said. “She was spectacular.”
“She was an amazing woman, a bridge builder. She had amazing communities, a dialysis community, a college community, a church community. She impacted people everywhere she went,” said Susan Lascek of Decatur.
And she went a lot of places, including nearly all 50 states, Mexico, Canada, Austria, often having to schedule dialysis ahead of time.
Robin Titterington was born Dec. 31, 1954 in Niskayuna, N.Y., to the late Walter Jay and Martha Whitaker Titterington. She was not expected to live. After she surprised doctors, they told her parents that she likely would not reach 30.
Her parents held Titterington to the same expectations they had for her two older brothers, said Gertrude Beal, who met Titterington when they were freshmen in college. Titterington was taking a Spanish class with Beal’s roommate, and they hit it off and remained friends 43 years, celebrating birthdays together for years, as Beal’s is one day earlier.
They also started celebrating Christmases together after Beal’s mother passed away, at Titterington’s insistence. “She called me and said, ‘what are you doing for Christmas?’ that first year, and I said ‘I don’t know.’ She said ‘I do. You’re coming to Atlanta,’ ” said Beal.
Titterington’s navigation of the crazy streets of Atlanta in her Honda amazed Beal. “She’d throw that wheelchair in the backseat, and off we’d go. She was a great driver.”
After receiving her master’s from NYU in deafness rehabilitation, Titterington worked in rehabilitation services for 20 years. She was national president for the Association of Late-Deafened Adults and president of the Georgia chapter, ALDA-Peach. She received four national awards: the Able ALDAn Award, the Fearless Leader Award, the Robert Davila Angel Award and the I. King Jordan Award.
She was awarded the St. Andrews Distinguished Alumni Award in 1996 for her service to the disability community. Titterington was featured in an exhibit and book with a forword by the late actor and activist Christopher Reeve accompanying the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta.
Billy Howard said his favorite picture of Titterington is of her at the pinnacle of Pike’s Peak. “That was a metaphor for her life,” he said.
In lieu of flowers, friends suggest a donation to a favorite organization or planting a tree in Titterington’s memory. A memorial service is scheduled March 5 at 1 p.m. at Holy Trinity Episcopal Parish at 515 Ponce de Leon Ave, Decatur. It will be followed by a scattering of ashes in the church garden. A.S. Turner & Sons is in charge of arrangements.
Titterington is survived by two brothers, Walter Titterington, of Aurora, Colo., and John Titterington of Parker, Colo.; a stepbrother John Walker, of New Jersey, and several nephews and nieces.
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