Priscilla M. Beaudry

Priscilla Marie Beaudry passed away 32 years to the day of her husband Rene’s death on December 6, 2022. They had a different kind of love story, written in the hearts of a generation that viewed life more simply, with gratitude for having a warm roof, warm food, and a real bed.
Priscilla was 18 when they married and had been an orphan in foster homes her whole life, with families in East Brookfield, MA and Amherst, MA. Her mother Marie Pelletier was a servant in the household of a prosperous mill owner in Lowell, MA and Priscilla’s birth was something to be hidden from public. Her father did not want to take responsibility and refused to accept his role as father, forcing Marie to give Priscilla up for adoption. Marie would have two other daughters through marriage and Priscilla was able to joyously connect with them later in life.
After attending St. Michaels High School in Northampton and graduating from Amherst High School in 1951, her marriage to Rene on June 2, 1951, began a new adventure for this wispy and vivacious teenager. They had 7 children, her “little Indians” she liked to say. Gary, Raymond, Leonard, Andrew, Linda, Kenneth, who predeceased his parents in 1982, and Annette. Along the way she collected a brood of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Jessica, Jason, Tabor, Jeremiah, Joshua, Meghan, Bowie, Shaylynn, Aighdan, Gabrielle, Jaiden, Ava, Daxton, Priscilla, Penelope, and Juniper. She also had daughters and sons-in-laws as well, Annie, Patty, Amanda, and Eric. Grandma Bea enjoyed her birthday celebrations for her 80th and 85th years of life, mostly because they focused on having her brood and friends together, laughing and enjoying life.
Pat, as her friends called her, started her career late in life focusing on care for people with dementia and senior long-term health care services. She graduated from UMASS Amherst in 1988 and worked for the Holyoke Soldiers Home for 12 years before starting the Alzheimer’s Care Unit at Elaine Health and Rehab in Hadley, MA. She was passionate about her work and always sought the best interest of her residents and staff. For the last 3 years, she was a resident of the very place she had started back in 1997! She was happy in her space at Elaine’s and felt well taken care of by the folks working there. Though dementia slowly eroded her memories, she was a joyful soul who was constantly singing while finding the good in what was around her. She genuinely complimented the nurses, aides, and other staff with how good of a job they were doing. She frequently thanked Andrew for putting her up in the “fancy hotel”.
Over the past 30 years she had special friendships with her Appalachian Club members and a host of white-water enthusiasts. Her passions for hiking, fishing, camping, and enjoying nature were central to who she was in living life. She and Rene brought their 7 on many camping adventures around New England and Eastern Canada, all the way to Prince Edward Island. Her happiest period of life was spent on Big Pond where she purchased a “cabin in the woods” and delighted in the campfires, a good cold beer, laughter with her brood and a host of hiking friends. The cabin gave her more opportunity to volunteer at Tanglewood as a hostess and connect with folks who became friends. Her collection of old books and oddities of the forest were her signature hobbies. The cabin was her true home for almost 20 years and her Belchertown condo was customized in her style, a treasure trove of her unique view for how she wanted to live life. If you asked Priscilla ‘how are you doing?’ on any given day, she was likely to let you know that she was “full of piss and vinegar!”. Later in life she would express her unbelief at a fact, event, or circumstance with a well-placed “well, I’ll be dipped!” None of us are sure as to what this phrase means, but it was something she learned in her voracious reading of old books!
Her love of laughter, incurable curiosity, an abiding wanderlust all made her an incurable adventurist. We will all miss her spirit. Henry David Thoreau summed her philosophy best: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover I had not lived.”
Priscilla swore she wouldn’t make it past her 80th birthday, so here we are, about to have a Celebration of Life on April 25, 2023, near what would’ve been her 90th Birthday! In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to A Living Tribute https://www.alivingtribute.org/ which plants trees in memory and honor of those we love in our National Forests.
Mom - may your paddle always be on the right side of the kayak and your hiking boots sturdy enough to handle a rattlesnake bite!
Please visit Priscilla’s memorial page at www.nefcc.net for expressions of sympathy. New England Funeral & Cremation Center, LLC, 25 Mill Street, Springfield, MA has been entrusted with the arrangements.
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Priscilla M. Beaudry.