Tara Welch Gallagher, 39, was employed by the City of Virginia Beach for six years. She worked as an engineer in the Public Works Department.
Gallagher graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School and earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from Old Dominion University. She lived in Virginia Beach with her husband and 21-month-old son, according to her obituary.
“Tara was a devoted mother and her life was centered around her son,” her obituary says. “Tara was kind in heart, compassionate in her actions, and humble in her demeanor. Tara projected a quiet ease — always present but never pretentious.”
Gallagher was an attentive friend who always made time to listen to those she loved — and to lend a helping hand to strangers, according to a GoFundMe, which was created by her friends and family and has raised more than $42,000 as of Friday morning.
“She always had kind words to say and endless time to listen to others who needed someone to talk to. Her family and her friends meant everything to her,” according to the GoFundMe.
Her best friend, Andrea DallaVilla McMurran, wrote on Facebook that Gallagher’s friendship was a “shining testimony in my life of kindness and love… always.”
McMurran wrote that she plans to share the memories the pair created over their 35-year friendship with Gallagher’s young son.
“We will all make sure he knows the angel on earth his mother was… in EVERY circumstance and in every way,” she wrote.
A funeral service is bing held at Church of the Holy Family in Virginia Beach on Saturday, June 8, at 11 a.m. Gallagher will be laid to rest in Portsmouth following the service.