A few reminiscences from Jean Holwell about my friend Pat:
I met Pat in 1965 when we were freshmen @ Russell Sage, but we didn’t become friends until sophomore year. I believe we were introduced by Selma Kelly Reinovsky, whom I knew from several classes we shared freshman year.
I loved Pat’s sharp wit, her hearty laugh & her wry sense of humor. With most of our close friends being elementary ed. majors, Pat & I often commiserated over our perception that she (as a nursing major - - affectionately known as “Nursie Wonder”) & I (as a history major), seemed to have more work to do than they did. In our junior & senior year Pat had a huge number of nursing papers to do & I was constantly adding to my shoe box full of notecards for 100+ page research papers. Meanwhile, our el. ed. Pals were busy making paper snakes in “methods” class for a kiddie art project. Over the years, “paper snakes” became something Pat & I laughed about, even if it might have slightly annoyed those el. ed. majors.
When we graduated, Jerry & I appreciated that Pat & Bob made the trip to Long Island for our August wedding. And we were always grateful for their hospitality over the years when we visited them in Poughkeepsie & much later in Williamsburg.
It was our privilege, & my mother’s delight, to babysit Anne-Marie as a toddler while Pat & Bob attended a family wedding on LI. It was then that the devoted “dog people,” the Lunds, met & were charmed by our sweet, gentle & super-friendly cat, Clawdine. For years afterward, Pat & Anne-Marie would ask about our feline friend whenever they saw us.
Our daughter honed her beginning swimming skills in the Lund’s pool at their James St. house. And, I will always remember a visit to the Lunds when we took a “field trip” to an art show - - @ Greenhaven State Prison! A few years ago, when we “recycled” the landscape we bought there by donating it to a church “Chinese Auction,” the people who won it loved the provenance that it was painted by a convicted murderer! Pat always was a great tour guide with an interesting itinerary for every visit.
Jerry & I, w/ Amanda, our daughter, were some of the crazy people who braved an ice storm to attend Anne-Marie’s wedding. We were honored to have been invited & to have gotten home safely!
I will miss those long conversations w/ Pat on history, politics, medicine, teaching (she at the college level & I in a high school), family & friends. We didn’t see each other often, but each time we got together it was as if we’d never been apart.
It has been such a blessing for the 5 couples - - the Lunds, the Fowlers, the Schmidts, the Reinovskys & us - - to get together occasionally. The last time on beautiful Green Bay w/ all of us present was extra-special & so poignant.