Serving the Vermont Champlain Valley Area for 45 Years
Tuesday July 29, 2008 Edition
Main Sections
Front Page SportsValley VitalsIt's in the StarsStarwiseArchivesLinksAbout The VoiceContact Us







Sharing Memories With Patricia Pratt


photo by Larry Johnson

Tuesday July 29, 2008

By Larry Johnson

    In the interest of full disclosure, Patricia Pratt is my only aunt as well as being one of my favorite people. She is also one of the nicest people I have ever known. She has lived a life of service to others; not only to family and friends but to those who were placed in her care as a nurse. If I sound like I am the least bit bias, it’s because extolling the virtues of my mother’s only sister is the easiest thing I have ever done.

     Pat Pratt was born to John and Pearl Morcombe on May 26, 1921, on East Street in Bridport, Vermont, near Town Line Road. She was the third child in a family of four siblings.  The house is long gone but the memories remain. It was a small farm, with the requisite cows, pigs, ducks, chickens and horses. It was here that Pat began her apprenticeship in gardening and canning, skills that have lasted more than eighty years. It was also here that the first cracks in her mother’s health began to appear.

     When she was about six years old, the family farm was sold and Patty, her two siblings and their parents moved to Vergennes where her dad went to work for the milk plant. Those early years were a time of much moving about as her father took various farm jobs around Addison County. At various times, the Morcombes lived in New Haven, Weybridge, Middlebury and even as far away as Chittenden, where her father operated a farm on shares, milking cows, raising hogs and making cheese.

     Eventually, the family moved back to Vergennes. Pat’s mother, Pearl, became more ill and Pat quit school in the eighth grade in order to help out around the house. This was her initial introduction into nursing and caring for others, and it was a valuable lesson that would mould her life and develop her character. She cared for her mother and siblings until she married at the age of 24 to Roscoe Pratt, a life-time resident of Bridport. Roscoe’s parents owned a dairy farm just north of Bridport village on Rte. 22-A. The couple moved into a small house just south of Roscoe’s parents’ farm.  Her mother went to live with Pat’s older sister, Arlene Johnson, in Weybridge. Arlene lived on a farm with her husband Maurice and their three children and had started a geriatric nursing home. Over the years, until her mother’s death, Pat was a part-time nurse at the home, where she helped take care of her mother and other elderly patients.

     Roscoe Pratt worked for the town of Bridport’s highway department for a number of years. Eventually he went to work for Nappi’s Freeze Locker in Middlebury. It was here that he learned the meat-cutting trade, and this skill would come in handy, years later, when he and Pat and their son Darwin bought Broughton’s Store in Bridport and became proprietors of a grocery that has been a family business for the past 39 years. In the beginning, it was just the three of them working in the store, and Pat stocked shelves, waited on customers and did general housekeeping duties. She also did the banking, billing and, even today, she helps out by picking up supplies and running errands. Working at the store was a job she liked because it put her contact with other people and Pat is definitely a people person. She loves socializing at various local functions, such as the town’s Senior Citizen Dinners and church. She is also a member of the Horizon Club and enjoys their bus tours and social outings. When her husband Roscoe was alive, the couple took many trips. There was a bus trip through the Southwest where they visited the Grand Canyon. Her favorite, however, was their tour of Hawaii. The couple also spent several winters in Florida where they were able to be close to two of Pat’s siblings, Arlene Johnson-Dellivineri and Harold Morcombe.

     Pat is rightfully proud of her nurse’s license. She spent years as a nurse’s aide and it was this practical experience that catapulted her into professional nursing. She had worked at various aide jobs over the years, including a stint at a nursing home in Brattleboro and her sister’s nursing home in Weybridge. It was at Porter hospital, however, where the opportunity arose for her to become a Licensed Practical Nurse. A LPN licensure course was offered at the hospital and Pat enrolled. She was worried, she told me, that a lack of formal education would handicap her ability to pass the exam, but “book learning” was not the main purpose of the course and her practical experience proved to be what the exam was looking for. She passed with flying colors and graduated first in her class. It was a proud moment for Pat. “I loved nursing,” she told me, “and I would do it today if I were able.”

     At age 87, Pat gets around just fine, but several years ago she fell at home and broke her hip. Life Line alerted her family, and she was transported to Porter Hospital by ambulance where her hip was surgically repaired. She spent several weeks in rehabilitation, but today she is good as new, surrounded by children and grand children. It is a full life, replete with numerous social activities that keep her young and engaged. Aunt Pat is one of the youngest and happiest people I know.  

 


 Printer Friendly  Top
Advertisements


Search our Archives


· More Options



   

Agricultural Weather Forecast:

© 2006-18 The Valley Voice • 656 Exchange St., Middlebury, VT 05753 • 802-388-6366 • 802-388-6368 (fax)
Valleywides: [email protected] • Classifieds: [email protected] • Info: [email protected]