MURPHY, Patricia Helen Delaney - 85, of Wellesley and Harwichport, Massachusetts and Naples, Florida passed peacefully at Parlin Hospice Residence in Wayland, MA (to whom we’ll be forever grateful) after succumbing to Alzheimer’s Disease, April 10, 2018.
Pat was born and raised in Walpole, Massachusetts by Catherine and Daniel Henry Delaney. The eldest of eight children, she was like “a second mother” to her siblings, Ann Howard, Sheila Flynn, Beth Delaney, Cathie LeBrun, Jeremiah Delaney, Daniel Delaney, and John Delaney. She attended Bridgewater State Teacher’s College where she met the love of her life, John (Jack) Dickinson Murphy with whom she spent 63 years. Pat and Jack went on to have eight children of their own, to whom Pat devoted her life. Each of those eight children believe they couldn’t have been loved any more completely and will miss her desperately. When she wasn’t raising her children, she worked at The Wellesley Free Library. An obsessive reader and borrower herself, we teased her that she took the job to erase the fines she’d let pile up over the years.
She’ll be missed by an incredibly wide swath of friends and relatives, but most particularly by her children and their spouses and exes, John Murphy (Fort Myers, FL), Peter (MJ) Murphy (Paoli, PA), Paul (Almaz) Murphy (Sudan), France E. Murphy (Medfield, MA), Mary Webb (Los Angeles, CA), Neil (Helen Stubbs) Murphy (Groton, MA), Kathryn Murphy (Naples, FL), Sally (Rajiv) Prasad (Cambridge, MA). And her grandchildren, Colin (Lauren) Murphy, Kate (Evan) Washburn, Hannah Murphy, Aster Murphy, Faban Murphy, John Murphy, Adeline Webb, Maisie Webb, Henry Webb, Elliot Murphy, Theodore Murphy, Jamison Feeley, Griffin Feeley, and Grandma’s “pièce de résistance,” Vira Shea Prasad. As well as great grandchildren, Anabelle Murphy, Owen Murphy, Lucy Murphy and Hudson Washburn.
A Mass will be held at Saint John the Evangelist Church, Wellesley Hills on Tuesday, April 17 at 11am, followed by a lunch and celebration of Pat’s life at the Wellesley College Club.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Pat’s name to help in the search for a cure for Alzheimer’s at https://curealz.org/outreach/in-memory/patricia-murphy/