Appreciation: Pat Murray

SALISBURY — Pat Murray died Dec. 1, 2009, at the age of 68. A virtual shut-in the last few years of her life because of her weakened immune system, she missed seeing her friends and grandkids, but she stayed busy doing the handicrafts she was so well known for.

Recently her husband, Bob, and son, Joe, reminisced about Pat.

She was the love of Bob Murray’s life. They met at his mother’s house in Sharon at the end of December 1957. Their first date was on New Year’s Eve and they married in July of the same year. She was 17.

Pat Murray was the backbone of her family. She and Bob raised four boys. In the early days she helped make ends meet on a farmer’s yearly income of $2,500. She could dress a deer, skin a rabbit and clean a pheasant. She made homemade spaghetti sauce. She canned, pickled and froze her vegetables. Even today, there is a freezer full of frozen green beans.

She would load up the family station wagon with corn to sell. The money earned was put in a mason jar — saved so she could take the boys on vacation.

Of course, clothes were hand-me-downs. Not so bad since they were all boys, but by the third son, she would have to add fabric to the hem of the jeans so they would fit.

She had many friends and helped many people. She was  a straight shooter and would “tell it like it was.â€� But she cared deeply about her friends and was always available to lend an ear or a helping hand.

The hardest thing for her and the family was that, in her last years, she couldn’t see people. Last year at Christmas the grandkids weren’t even allowed to visit because of the danger of her catching something.  

Like the ripples from a stone thrown in a pond, Pat Murray’s influence was ever-widening. In a home filled with family photos and brimming with the fruits of her labor, it is clear she will not be forgotten.

— Tara Kelly

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