She had two little kids. And she happened to call me one day and said, “I seem to be having some kind of hemorrhage here.” Anyway, you go to your gynecologist and they tend to pooh-pooh, you know, our female problems – “Oh, just go home and we’ll see how this goes.” Well, it didn’t go well. She was 34. Her children were six and nine, just six and nine. And all the time this ends up being a serious problem. She had cervical cancer.And through many operations, chemo, and radiation and all that, it just wasn’t working. And at that time, I was taking the kids ‘cause her husband has to work. I tried to visit every single day, sometimes twice a day because after a while, after the operations and -- she wound up being at a nursing home. She went in around Thanksgiving and never came out. February -- she died on February 2nd.
Pat Masiello was born in 1937 in Worcester, Massachusetts where she grew up with her parents and siblings. She attended Dix Street School and Commerce High School and she describes playing in Institute Park, Elm Park, and the Worcester Art Museum. After high school she worked at Massachusetts Protective Association, later Paul Revere Insurance. She married at the age of 20 and when she was five and a half months pregnant with her first child she had to leave her employment. In this interview she talks about being bored at home with two small children, the pleasure she got from her part-time job with other young mothers, and her jobs at Auburn High School and Assumption College. She also describes caring for her mother who had Alzheimer’s, her daughter’s death from cervical cancer, and her sister’s death from liver cancer. She cared for her daughter’s two children throughout her illness and she has a strong bond with them and her other grandchildren.