Patsy Burns
Last Saturday our family was rocked by the sudden loss of Patsy Burns.
Patsy has been a cornerstone of this group for longer than most of us have been in the club.
She made us sandwiches for British Bike Day and crab dip at Christmas.
She served as our paraphernalia queen almost uninterrupted for the better part of two decades..
I was going through our 1999 National Rally expenses and she and Jeffery were all over it with things they picked up for us and arranged and ordered and followed up on. And that’s not counting the toting and schlepping, the setting up.. folding, and storing and suffering our whining about things that shrank.
She opened their house to us not once or twice or ten or twenty times but at least fifty times over the years for meetings, Christmas parties, and crab feasts.
She has done more for us than the next 10 of us combined.
After Jeffery called last Saturday, I was wandering around the house trying to absorb what I’d heard. I had to get dressed. I grabbed a shirt and it occurred to me that Patsy had handed me that shirt. And I looked around the basement at the stacks of bike shirts and realized that she’d handed nearly all of them to me.
She was a wonderful Southern lady that you always wanted on your side.
She had brains.. She had wit.. She had fire..
She felt things strongly and she let you know it..
She picked us up, she put us in our place, she fed us and teased us and joked with us and drank with us .. She cared for us, She called us out.. She told us what she thought.. but most of all, she loved us.
We have lost an irreplaceable member of our family .. and we are diminished..
Please, tonight and on your way home tomorrow.. Keep our dear Patsy and our brother Jeff in your thoughts ..
Please join me in a moment of silence..
Please lift your glass… To our dear Patsy .. Thank you for all you have done for us, thank you for loving us, but most of all, thank you for enrichening our lives..
Marc Bouchard 9/10/16
Obit for Patsy
Patricia M Burns 5/9/45 to 9/3/16
Early Saturday morning Patsy Burns passed, eleven hours after being released from the hospital. She suffered heart failure in the arms of her husband Jeff. She will be missed and remembered by her family and the many friends who loved and respected her for her generosity, kindness and love.
She is survived by her husband, two sons, three step children and eight grand children, and Snickers.
A celebration of her life will be held at her home at a date to be determined.
She will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery at a future date. Visitation may be made at her home in Silver Spring.
Flowers are not suggested, but donations may be made to NPR, NMRCS or your favorite charity.
I loved Patsy dearly and miss her at club events. You never had to ask her what she thought. Without any hesitation or reservation she would let you know with both barrels exactly how she felt.