Patricia Ruffell
Sunday, May 13, 2007 12:30 AM PDT
date of birth - May 7, 2007
Ontario
Patricia Ruffel, 75, Ontario, died Monday, May 7, 2007, in an Ontario care center. No services will be held.
Pat was born and raised in Syracuse, N.Y. She married her beloved husband Fran Whaley, and soon after, all of her family caravanned to California. She often spoke of this journey on old Route 66 and of all the memories it gave her. Her father, John, her mother, Helen, her brother, John and his wife, Pudgie, and her sister, Jean and her husband, Richard all made this journey together to beautiful Pasadena. Their homes were located very close to where they held the annual Rose Parade. Pat would say that they could walk to the parade. Pat would often speak of how beautiful California was in those years, orange groves and bluebirds everywhere.
Pat and her husband, Fran, took care of her parents for years; Pat’s mother, Helen, had become blind. After a huge earthquake, the four of them moved to Las Vegas. Pat often said how great those years were until one day tragedy struck and both Pat’s husband and father were murdered. Pat and her mother’s lives were turned upside down. They decided to move to John Day, Ore., to begin a new life. Pat married Robert Ruffell and had several good years in John Day. They moved to the Ontario area in the late 1970s. Pat lost Robert soon after moving, and it wasn’t long after that she lost her beloved mother, Helen.
While taking care of her mother in the nursing home, Pat met the last love of her life, John Keithley. John and Pat had many good retirement years in Ontario, and she often spoke of the cruise to Alaska they took together.
Pat loved life. She always had the biggest smile, and she loved teddy bears and antiques. Pat didn’t have any children, but she had many, many friends, many whom she had met playing bingo every Friday. Pat was always a caregiver to someone in her home.
Pat, we will truly miss you.
Memorials may be made to Pathway Hospice, 323 W. Idaho Ave., Ontario, OR 97914.
