Patricia Hull Pease Resident of Santa Cruz 1939 - 2010 Pat Pease, a cherished wife, mother, grandmother, friend, nurse, and most recently, a writer, died on April 5, 2010 at home in the company of her daughters and husband. She is survived by her husband, Hugh Pease, her three daughters and sons-in-law, Laura Pease and Bill Scurr, Kate and Lowell Staveland, and Allison Pease and Lee Kempler, and her four grandchildren, Brooke and Owen Staveland, and Ethan and Lila Kempler. Pat was born November 12, 1939 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and was raised in the Berkshire mountains where she developed a life-long love of greenery and nature. She attended the Northfield School for Girls in Massachusetts and then Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland where she edited the literary journal and honed her precise command of the English language, which she wielded to witty effect. After several years of on-again, off-again dating, Pat made a dramatic return from a post-graduation European tour and proposed to Hugh. They were married February 10, 1962. Honeymooning by car, they drove to their new home in Fort Hood Texas where Hugh was stationed for two years. After the torrid Texan heat, they determined to move to San Francisco, where summers reached a mere 57 degrees. They raised their three daughters in Mill Valley and Saratoga, finally moving to Santa Cruz in 1997 to retire. Before and after retiring, Pat had several careers. After marketing and customer service work for the family light-switch timer company, she attended De Anza College and received her R.N. As an oncology nurse at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City for ten years she relished the genuine connections she made with her patients, recounted their stories in detail, and honored their lives with her care. She delighted in the camaraderie of her fellow caregivers. Pat always loved tending to her beautiful gardens and lamented the Santa Cruz winds for what they did to tomatoes. But she made Santa Cruz her true home, with the many friends she found through yoga, book club, mah jongg, and golf. In recent years she wrote two Capitola Mystery novels with four wonderful friends; she flourished in collaboration. We will miss her joy in her family, her friends, and her appreciation of the smallest of beauties. Her perseverance and good humor throughout more than five years of breast cancer treatment was a lesson in grace. A celebration of her life will take place on Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. at the Sesnon House, 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos, CA. Donations may be made to Hospice of Santa Cruz County.
