Bressey, Patricia

Early in the morning, on June 24, but not before the sunlight was on the gardens, my Mom passed away.

Born into two longtime Vancouver families, Patricia Mabel Bressey loved her city and all its forests, ocean vistas, and gardens.  Particularly fond of Stanley Park which was her playground while her Dad was at work there.  For a time, her family lived with her Uncle Frank in North Vancouver where row upon row of food crops and 50 chickens were her reality which became the backbone of her lifelong bond with nature and joy of gardening.

After graduating from North Vancouver High School in 1958, where her mother worked as a secretary she briefly tried her hand at hairdressing school, and living in a cabin on the side of Grouse Mountain.

Escaping her families world for the beatnik lifestyle in the late 50’s and early 60’s she travelled the desserts of California and Arizona in a school bus and hung out in North Beach, San Francisco.

Patti’s next adventure lay in Cawston, BC, where she mad life long friends of locals and passers through while off grid homesteading and starting a family.

Returning to her West Coast roots her daughter and her lived in 70’s experience with other dynamic single mothers in Vancouver only to go exploring again and homestead on Texada Island, BC.  Looping back to Vancouver for her daughter to complete high school in the late 1980’s at the same school her mother graduated from in 1925, Lord Byng.

A dedicated daughter, Paddy lived with and cared for her parents win their old age while her daughter went off on her own travels making use of the lessons learning with her mom.

Paddy returned to Texada in the 90’s to dig in the dirt with friends and sing with the eagles.  Longing for her city but determined to continue her serene country life, homes were maintained both in West Vancouver and on Texada Island.

A grand daughter arrived in 2001 and a year later their little family escaped Vancouver’s inaccessible housing market and moved to Nelson, BC.  This made for long drives for Gramma Paddy but she always loved a road trip.  Taking many national and international trips with her family in the 2000’s in between travels on her own and with her friends was the realization of many dreams and a great joy.

Life in the big city of Vancouver without family became lonely and Alzheimer’s Dementia was making her world smaller and more challenging so a move to Nelson was made in the winter of 2021.  Plans of more adventures with her family were cut shore on June 24th, 2022 by lung cancer.

My Mom has a wild life full of wild places and wild people.  She was bonded to the earth and soared with the birds, indulgent, observant, attentive, daring, caring, obstinate, and vulnerable. She spoke her truth and will be missed in all her complexities.

Mom did not wish to have a celebration of her life but please do pause to ponder her many layered life and her place in yours.  Perhaps this will bring you to go out and burn a bra, dig in your garden, cook a feast, or sing with the birds.  Find your harmony and know she loved you too.

Pre-deceased by her sister Daphne Helen Patitucci, nee Bressey, January 26, 1991, her father John Walter Bressey (1909 – 1992), and her mother Mabel Alexandrina Bressey, nee Gibbings (1910 – 2003).  Survived by her daughter Morgana Mariposa Bressey Bell, her son-in-lay Keinan James Chapman, and her grand daughter Amelia Rose Alexandrina Bressey Chapman.