Patricia M. (McCann) Pothier, 90, of Haverhill, passed away April 8, at Merrimack Valley Hospice House. Her nursing career spanned more than half a century and came to a close only after her 80th birthday.
She cared for residents at Prescott House Nursing Home, North Andover, as well as her husband of 53 years, Lomer J. Pothier, who died in 2006 after living with Alzheimer’s disease for 10 years. Before that, she worked overnight shifts as a private-duty nurse to help finance her children’s college education. She was raised in Lowell, where she married Lomer in November, 1952. They started a family in Melrose, and lived in Andover for many years, before moving to Haverhill. She willingly signed on to her husband’s frequent camping and mountain climbing adventures, tolerating a damp tent or wind-scraped summit when she would have rather been fireside in a country inn. She worked outside the home at a time when it was not the norm, and at backyard “cookouts” she freely expressed her opinions on such incendiary subjects as politics, religion and her sons’ hair length with or without an invitation.
She is survived by Jamie M. Taylor and her husband Ian of Chedworth, Gloucestershire, England, Mark J. Pothier and his wife Elizabeth of Plymouth and Shawn M. Pothier of Rowley; Suzie, Shawn, and their sons, Matthew and Ryan and five other grandchildren, Holly and Lewis Taylor, and Alexandra, Justin, and Laura Pothier.
Visiting hours are Wednesday, April 12, in the Driscoll Funeral Home, 309 South Main St., Haverhill, from 4 to 7 p.m. Services begin Thursday in the funeral home at 9 a.m. Funeral Liturgy in Sacred Hearts Church, 165 South Main St., Haverhill, at 10 a.m. Burial follows alongside her husband Lomer in the Massachusetts National Cemetery, Bourne. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Pat’s memory to either the Alzheimer’s Foundation or to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.