Patricia M. Devine

Patricia M. Devine

March 18, 1929 - April 25, 2013

Patricia M. Devine

March 18, 1929 - April 25, 2013

Obituary

Patricia Devine, widow of George Devine, resident of the Village for sixteen years, passed away April 25, 2013.

She is survived by her brother Bill, four children, thirteen grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.

She was an active member of Saint Nicholas Catholic Church, The Catholic Women’s Group, and the L.W.V. Garden Club. She enjoyed walking along the creek and being a friend to all.

Memorial services will be held Monday, May 6, 2013 at 9:00 AM at Saint Nicholas Catholic Church, Laguna Woods, California.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her honor to Catholic Relief Services, crs.org/donate, or PO Box 17090 Baltimore, MD 21203-7090.

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30 responses to Patricia M. Devine

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  1. Alex Dwyer says:

    Patricia was slightly shy. Not nervous or scared of the world, but a young woman with a calculated bashfulness about what it meant to be a New Yorker in a booming era. Her cautiousness kept her away from the harm of the excitement but it also wasn’t overbearing enough to keep her from enjoying it. Her balanced charisma probably came from her sister, two brothers and a close cousin, who had fallen a little more polarized across the personality spectrum.

    One night in Central Park, she met a young man that was just daring enough to inspire her and just goofy enough to put her at ease. That square dance partnership led to more dances and eventually to another kind of partnership entirely. In a marriage that lasted over fifty years she and George did what so many can’t ‘ they stayed together, even though it wasn’t always as easy learning to two-step.

    When the couple of Devine’s felt it was time to have their first child, it ended tragically. Christine saw only a glimpse of the world before succumbing to illness. That this moment was difficult was an understatement. It’s impossible to know what forces pushed Patricia forward after such a blow but the bond between the lovers proved strong enough to try again. After Susan was born, Barbara, Steven and Carolyn all arrived to the family fold, healthily and happily.

    Patricia approached the duty of motherhood in a way that only a mother who had suffered the pain of losing her first child could. She loved in a fashion that was thorough and whole and unrelenting. Her four children flourished under her care. They all married and had three kids each.

    It was with her first grandson, Kevin, that she became Eeemo. Her team of grandchildren were the benefactors of a loving-style birthed out of the pain of loss but perfected through her appreciation at her good fortune. By the time the youngest grandchild Jeremy was born Eeemo had become the beacon of all things good, safe and warm in the worlds of Susan, Barbara, Steven, Carolyn, Kevin, Timothy, T.J., Danny, Robert, Alex, Jennifer, Natalie, Benjamin, Kelsey, Sean and Jeremy.

    People often said she was lucky. She was never a gambler but won more at the tables that the pros. Her name was drawn out of the hat more frequently than it ought to have been. Gift certificates, giveaways, and cash money flew her way. It was like she was magnetized to all things desirable.

    Whether this good fortune was random is a question worth asking.

    She lived completely how she believed she ought to. Steady and unwavering in her convictions. Solid. She lived consumed with a steadfast concern for her Family with a capital ‘F’. That she died so abruptly and without much suffering says something about the way she lived.

    Eeemo never really needed to be taken care of as she aged. It speaks to her success as a caretaker. To the end, she shouldered the balance of caring. Her children and grandchildren all outlived her. She cared well and it showed in her actions.

    Her good deeds were so plentiful that they overflowed into the lives of her extended family. That all extended children have been able to enjoy each other often, almost routinely, with minimal health concerns and no deaths is the most apparent of the many blessings that this karma-boil over brought to their lives.

    Eeemo provided a sense of home and history that stood strong even as other versions of it eroded in those lives. Descendants of America’s early melting pot days, they were all deprived of many of the traditions that their bloodline belonged to. In lieu of those traditions, Eeemo managed to create new ones, even as she switched coasts and displayed that uniquely American quality of adaption.

    In what wasn’t always the easiest partnership with her husband, she adapted. In embracing the vastly different life choices of her children and grandchildren, she adapted. Changing schools as a teacher, churches as a Catholic and communities as a retiree, she adapted. With the loss of her brother, and her husband not long after, she adapted. Late in her life when she took in her daughter and her dog

  2. Anonymous says:

    Do not stand at my grave and weep,
    I am not there, I do not sleep.
    I am a thousand winds that blow,
    I am the diamond glints on snow.
    I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
    I am the gentle autumn rain.
    When you awaken in the morning’s hush,
    I am the swift up-flings of quiet birds in circling flight.
    I am the soft star that shines at night.
    Do not stand at my grave and cry.
    I am not there, I did not die.

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