Stephanie Annabel Leonard, who was a popular server and bartender at several Provincetown restaurants, died on Oct. 5, 2024 at her parents’ home in Wells, Maine. Her family confirmed that she had taken her own life. She was 32.

Stephanie’s “adventurous spirit and boundless kindness touched everyone she met,” wrote her friend Chantal Marinilli in an online remembrance.

The only child of Mark and Susan Leonard, Stephanie was born on Nov. 25, 1991 in Boston. Her family moved from Randolph to Framingham when she was two.

Her keen interest in sports became evident in kindergarten. She swam at age five, played soccer at six, and enjoyed ballet and ice skating through her grade-school years. By middle school, she was swimming on the Framingham town team and playing on the town soccer team. She played soccer for four years at Framingham High School, leading her team to the state championship game once.

She also played basketball and lacrosse starting in her junior year, her father said, and led the lacrosse team to the state championship.

On Sundays, Stephanie attended a Chinese language school to learn Mandarin, her mother’s native language, and she did very well, scoring in the 90s on all her tests.

“Stephanie started out in life as the ugly duckling,” said her father, “but she grew into a beautiful swan.”

In another online remembrance, Ashley Chu, a friend and teammate, wrote, “I first met Steph in middle school and remember being in awe of her. I wanted to be her. She knew when to make a joke and how to get you to open up, so you left conversations feeling more confident.”

After graduating from high school in 2010, Stephanie attended Providence College on a soccer scholarship. The following year, she left Providence for Mercer University in Georgia, also on a soccer scholarship. But that year she blew out her knee, ending her soccer career.

She returned to Massachusetts and enrolled at Framingham State University to study actuarial science. She taught swimming and manned the front desk at the Boston Sports Club in Wellesley, where she met Marinilli, who shared Stephanie’s desire to someday have children.

“From the moment we met,” Chantal wrote, “it was as if we had known each other forever. You taught me how to live in the moment.” The two friends enjoyed lip-sync dance battles, late night gym sessions, comedy shows, and beach dates.

In 2013, Stephanie worked briefly as a personal assistant to a physician before taking her first restaurant job as a waitress at Legal Sea Foods in Framingham.

She moved to Provincetown in 2016 and worked at George’s Pizza, JD’s, Front Street, and the Red Inn. Donald Beal, a George’s Pizza regular, wrote, “Stephanie was incredibly friendly, engaging, smart, funny, and so beautiful. When things were slow, she would come and sit with us and talk about all sorts of things.”

Working at JD’s in 2017, Stephanie met Kalo Raikoff, and over the next six months they grew close, becoming a couple in 2018. For five years they shared their work lives and travel. They worked in Provincetown in the season, traveled for a couple of months afterward, worked in the winter in Colorado (Stephanie at the Marriot Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek), then traveled for another couple of months before returning to Provincetown to begin the cycle again.

During those years, they visited Kalo’s home in Bulgaria and Stephanie’s mother’s family in the Philippines; they also made it to Spain, Singapore, Mexico, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and Panama. “Stephanie did not know how to sit still,” Chantal said. “She loved to go out. But she always wanted a family. She was really great with kids.”

“She had a joyous personality and exuded positive energy,” said Kalo, “but she also had a history of self-medication.”

Stephanie and Kalo parted in April 2023 but remained in touch. In January 2024, she went to Panama, where she experienced a trip on psychedelic drugs that was followed by a psychic break that was, Kalo said, “the culmination of something we cannot know the roots of.”

She was hospitalized in the summer for drug-induced psychosis and after her release withdrew to live alone in a Truro rental to work on her sobriety, Kalo said.

In mid-September, she joined her parents in Maine and started a new job at a local steakhouse. “She was doing everything to put her life back together,” Kalo said.

Stephanie is survived by her parents, Mark and Susan Leonard of Wells, Maine; her companion, Kaloyan Raikoff of Provincetown; her uncles, Greg Leonard of Framingham, Philip So of Manila, Philippines, and William So and wife Eleanor of Toronto, Canada; her aunts, Debbie Leonard and husband David Lovejoy of Blandford and Ma Luz So of Cavite, Philippines; and her cousins, Abraham Pierce, Christopher Leonard of Framingham, Brian Leonard of Worcester, Louella So of Singapore, Jenica So of Manila, Ivan So of Japan, Samantha So of Manila, Wendelle So of Toronto, Wesley So of Minnesota, and Wilma So of Toronto.

A visiting hour was held on Oct. 16 followed by remembrances at Bibber Memorial Chapel in Wells, Maine.