Barbara (Lydon) Nolan, 86, Cared for Home-Bound Elderly Women

Barbara (Lydon) Nolan, 86, of Haverhill, passed away peacefully, surrounded by family members at High Pointe Hospice House, Haverhill, Oct. 25, after a long battle with cancer.

Nolan was born Aug. 19, 1931 in the Glenlosh area of Maam Valley in the Connemara region of County Galway in Ireland to the late Patrick Lydon and Bridget (Joyce) Lydon. She was educated in the schools of the parish of Kilmilkin.

Her family owned a sheep farm and she worked on that farm up until the time that she emigrated to the U.S. She joined her sisters Katherine and Bridie in Massachusetts in 1950. She worked as an au pair in the North Shore area for six to seven years until she met her late husband, John, at one of the many “Irish dances” in Boston at that time. They married in 1957 and began raising a family in Haverhill. She created an atmosphere at her home that attracted neighborhood kids as a gathering point. As her children grew up, she was never one to sit still. She took jobs caring for home-bound elderly women in Haverhill. In her later years, she enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren and traveling back to Ireland when she could.

Nolan was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, John Nolan, who passed in March of this year, brothers John and Patrick, and sisters Bridie, Margaret, Mary, Sarah and Eileen. Her surviving family members include her five children, Theresa Susen and husband Peter, Patrick Nolan and wife Cheryl, John Nolan and wife Julie Herget, Barbara Nolan and Richard Dematteo and Kevin Nolan and wife Kristen, all of Haverhill; eight grandchildren, Matthew, Andrew and Jeffrey Susen, Sean, Lauren and Joshua Nolan, John Herget-Nolan, and Addison Nolan; siblings, Martin of Wales, UK, Annie of County Mayo, Ireland and Katherine of Milford; and many nieces and nephews in Ireland and the U.S.

Visiting hours are Sunday, Oct. 29, at Driscoll Funeral Home, 309 S. Main St., Bradford, from 2 to 5 p.m. Services are Monday, beginning in the funeral home at 9 a.m.. Funeral Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in Sacred Hearts Church, 165 S. Main Street, Bradford, at 10 a.m. Burial follows in Elmwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Barbara’s memory to the High Pointe Hospice House, 360 North Avenue, Haverhill, MA 01830.