Every community has them — those special human beings who brighten the lives of everyone fortunate enough to have been touched by them.
In the city of Peabody, more specifically South Peabody, that special person was M. Ellen Fitzgerald, who lost her courageous battle with pancreatic cancer Oct. 12 at the age of 78.
The oldest of 29 grandchildren of grandparents J. Robert and Eva Connell, Fitzgerald left a unique legacy for family and friends that is sure to bring a smile to their faces — bubbles.
“My mother had a way of making people smile and she loved blowing bubbles,” said Fitzgerald’s son and Swampscott Town Administrator, Sean Fitzgerald. “She always had bubbles at every family gathering, which was her way of helping others find a way to focus on the positive things and have a laugh and a smile.”
Fitzgerald said it was only fitting that his mother’s graveside services ended with — you guessed it — bubbles.
“The bubbles are a reflection of her enthusiasm and a joy that you can have when you do some simple things,” Sean Fitzgerald said. “In fact I took a few pictures of people blowing bubbles at her graveside memorial. We passed out bubbles to all the grandchildren (there are 11 of them) and everyone, and everybody was blowing bubbles, so it was very special.
“It was awesome to see all those bubbles from across the cemetery, just drifting in the breeze,” he said. “It was always a big part of who my mother was and we just have so many pictures of my mother just sitting there handing out bubbles to the grands, who were enamored with her.”
Fitzgerald said his mother dedicated a life to service, starting the preschool program at her church, St. Ann’s Church in South Peabody, as well as serving as Pastoral Associate and Director of Religious Education for 42 years.
“She was always very pleasant to work with and always a very bubbly person,” said St. Ann’s Administrative Assistant Susan Patturelli. “She took her job very seriously and was a very religious person. She was a friend, who always had a shoulder to lean on and you could talk to her. She was always there to help you come out of whatever you needed help with.”
Patturelli said Fitzgerald was well known and respected not only in the North Shore church community, but in the Archdiocese as well.
She described Fitzgerald in simple terms.
“She was just ‘good people,'” Patturelli said. “She stayed with us (at St. Ann’s) until she was 75, and we all have heavy hearts. I think the chemo took a lot out of her, but, while her family and all of her grands came first, she still always had that shoulder we could lean or cry on. Just a wonderful person who left us too soon.”
Fitzgerald’s cousin, Daily Item News Director Steve Krause, said Fitzgerald had a knack for being able to give meaningful advice without showing too much judgement.
“She was eternally happy, and if you were in a rut, and needed to be cheered up, she was the one to see,” said Krause. “It’s probably why, in Peabody, everyone knows at least one Fitzgerald. Ellen was both very popular and very influential, especially in South Peabody. She was just a wonderful and welcoming person to all.”
Sean Fitzgerald described his mother as a person who set “extraordinary examples as a parent and a mother in so many ways.
“Obviously it’s difficult to lose a parent but we’re all just incredibly grateful to have had such an extraordinary person as our mother,” he said. “It was wonderful to have her as she really left everybody with a smile, just a kindred spirit.”
“She had a rare quality of being accepting to everyone, in one way she was such a common person, but in other ways was so uncommon as she gave the sense that she helped to create joy with a twinkle in her eye or a kind word.”
Fitzgerald’s last wishes as stated in her obituary were, especially during these unprecedented and challenging times, for people “to just be extra kind to each other and spend a bit more time flying kites, singing songs or blowing a few bubbles in the wind.”
Mission accomplished.
