Below is an obituary from Dolan Funeral Home:
WESTFORD, MA — Patricia A. McDonald, 89, of Westford and formerly of Wilmington, Massachusetts, passed away peacefully on May 23, following a long illness.
Funeral services are arranged by Dolan Funeral Home in Chelmsford and will be held at St. Catherine Church at 107 North Main Street in Westford on May 28, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. A private burial ceremony with family will be held at a later date.
Pat was born on February 19, 1935 in Arlington, Massachusetts to John and Gladys (Smith) Cox. She attended Arlington High School, where she was noted for her acting abilities and was an active member of Arlington Junior Women’s Club. After graduation Pat worked at Dewey and Almy Chemical Company in Cambridge, where in 1955 she began planning her first trip to Europe, beginning with her grandmother’s relations in Ireland.
Along with cousins Mary and Anne Cullen, Pat sailed on the Mauretania to Ireland in 1957, beginning a life-long love affair with the country that saw her return more than 30 times over the next 65 years. Pat wrote a memoir of her 1957 trip, THE THREE GRACES ABROAD, detailing her tour across Ireland, France, Monaco, Italy, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and England.
Pat’s passion for all things Irish led her to study Gaelic at the Harvard Extension School, learn the Irish accordion and teach herself to knit Aran sweaters with their intricate cable patterns. Through her accordion teacher Pat met her future husband John P. McDonald, an Irish folk singer and band leader from Ireland, and they married in 1967. With their daughters Maura and Sheila, they moved from their first home in Arlington to Wilmington, where together they cleared the woods behind their home to build kennels for the racing greyhounds John imported from Ireland and bred.
Famous on both sides of the Atlantic for her sense of humor and adventure, Pat enjoyed travel, dogs, Irish music and making people laugh. She is survived by her daughter Maura P. Hughes of Westford, CEO of Boston MedFlight; daughter Sheila M. Averbuch of Pencaitland, Scotland, children’s author; grandchildren Brendan and Ryan Hughes and Ben and Sally Averbuch; sons-in-law Scott Hughes and Ralph Averbuch; nieces Priscilla and Barbara Croak, Jackie (Croak) Ciriello, Sandra Croak-Brossman, niece Pamela Adamian and family, and beloved cousins and friends in Ireland and the US.
Instead of flowers, anyone wishing to honor Pat’s memory is invited to make a donation to Boston MedFlight, to support its life-saving work at www.bostonmedflight.org/donate.
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