Daniel Buccigrossi
I have known Pat/Mum for half of my 68 years. She was always a gracious and welcoming hostess. She enjoyed serving guests and visitors whether it was a cup of coffee and a plate of cookies or a 6 course holiday feast for 15. She was always the last to sit at the table and the first to get up.
\tI will always remember Mum’s signature dessert which was served at every holiday - a small chocolate cheese-cake confection that her father H.R. Gilligan called “little guys.” the name stuck.
\tKathy and I were visiting John and Pat shortly after my mother died in 2006. Pat made sure that there was coffee and a plate of cookies on the table. I remarked that I was really missing my mother. Pat said to me, “I know that your mother will never be replaced but I can tell you I am not going anywhere soon.” This was the way she welcomed everyone into her home and life.
\tAt the end of every family holiday meal as everyone reached their fill she always repeated a quote from her Aunt Claire. As we gather today to celebrate the culmination of the smorgasbord that was Patricia Catherine Gilligan Goelz’s life I would like to share that most fitting quote:
I’ve had eloquent sufficiency
Any more would be an abundancy
And I decline with thanks.