Patricia Mary Collins (Holden) 1924-2011
I have not blogged for a little while because my husband’s Mother passed away November 26th, 2011.
Kevin flew to Toronto on November 22nd and was lucky enough to have 4 days with her along with his 3 brothers and sister. I commented that Pat must have been happy to have them all there to make her laugh and my husband told me “She is making us laugh. She is such an amazing woman”.
After her passing the rest of the family flew to Toronto for the placing of her ashes with her husband, Arthur Stuart Collins, and the Memorial Service December 2nd.
The immediate family is now 19 and we came from Scotland, Mexico, Victoria, Canada, North Carolina and Virginia to be together and to draw strength from each other as we have done so many times before.
We drove together to Peterborough, Ontario on Dec. 1st to place Pat’s ashes next to her husband who had passed in 2008 and the setting was beautiful and it was a beautiful sunny day. Pat and Art had chosen a lovely stone wall overlooking the Otonabee River with a stately tree in front of the wall.
The Memorial on Dec. 2nd was a splendid tribute to this well-loved woman who we all loved dearly as did many of hundreds of others outside the family.
My husband’s brother, his wife and his sister had worked incredibly hard to have a fitting service for Pat and I know she would have been very proud of the warmth, caring and heartfelt tributes that poured out for her.
Pat (Nanny) will be sorely missed and it is hard to think of this earth without her but we know she is now with her beloved Art in heaven with whom she spent almost 60 years.
If you would like to know more about this very special person you can Google her and many stories and interviews will pop up. There was also a full page obituary/tribute to Pat in the Toronto Globe and Mail December 9th. Pat’s videos about her past as a ground-breaking camerawoman during the war have been uploaded to Youtube. This morning we got an email with all the references to Pat that were picked up because of the Globe and Mail article. I said to my husband that “Nanny has gone viral!”
Pat would have loved this as humor is a big part of our family’s rich fabric as anyone who knows my husband can attest to.
God Bless you, Pat, Mom, Nanny. You will be with us always and your ability to make each and every one of us feel like we were the most special people in the world will live on in our hearts. We will love you forever.