Obituary: Patricia (Pat) Garry, RIP

It was with immense sadness that we learned of the recent passing of Pat Garry (née English). Pat was one of those wonderful multi-faceted people who used her character and skills in a way that allowed her to express her deep caring for others.

In her early years, Pat trained and worked as a tailor, gaining skills that would serve her through her life and instilling a lifelong love of hand crafts and all things creative.

Pat could turn her hand to anything and understood how her creative spirit could allow her to satisfy her personal curiosity and to engage with people, and ultimately to carry her through many of life’s obstacles.

On a trip to Lourdes in the late 1960s, she met and cemented a relationship with Chris, her husband, very best friend, and father to their three children, Mark, Paul and Claire.

Together, Pat and Chris made a warm, welcoming family home, where neighbours and visitors, young and old, were met with open arms and a guarantee to laugh, reminisce and to right the world over a cup of tea or something stronger.

If advice was needed, Pat offered her wisdom. She had that ability to see through the mist, to cut to the chase and call a spade a spade. She did that with conviction and often with great humour, but always on point. As her family said: “She was funny, opinionated and bold.”

Pat made a career from her warm and caring nature, working initially as a psychiatric nurse at St Loman’s Hospital and later until her retirement at the Mullingar Resource Centre. There she passed on her knowledge, but more importantly became an advocate for those in the community whose voices are not readily heard.

Pat was a member of the Civil Defence and voluntarily taught adult literacy and offered victim support. It is a testament to Pat that so many of the vulnerable men and women she worked with considered her their friend.

Pat was a ‘midlander’, someone who loved the security of home, the quiet interior of her family, her neighbours, her pets, and her garden so beautifully tended.

When she did leave home, her natural inclination was to head to the Atlantic coast, and in particular, to the Aran Islands, where she had an affinity with the elemental nature of the landscape, its people and the artists who drew inspiration from the place.

She was an avid reader, especially of military history, and would often escape into the worlds of the Russian giants of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky through their literature. Along with Chris, she even took a memorable trip to St Petersburg to experience the culture first hand.

For a number of years Pat bore her illness with enormous strength and dignity. She held an acceptance of it and lived with it in her own pragmatic, unapologetic style. There was nothing to like about it, but she got on with life, continuing to craft and paint and to get out and about.

Chris was her mainstay. Together they were a tour de force, living and leaning on each other and sharing all highs and lows of life’s experiences. The vows taken at their marriage were lived to the letter.

While Pat’s passing has caused a wave of sadness through her community, when the time comes for reflection, in those quiet moments, she’ll be remembered for her warmth, her care, her no-nonsense straight talking and for the humour that will leave the sound of laugher ringing in our ears through the ages.

Heartfelt sympathy to her husband Chris, her children Mark, Paul and Claire; to her granddaughter Lauren and brother and sisters Tony, Camilla Fitzgibbon and Marie Broder, and to all her extended family and friends, especially Naomi, Linda and Bob.