Mary Bridget Fales

Mary passed away on Thursday, February 27, 2020, just 5 days after celebrating her 104th birthday. She was born on a farm the year of the Easter Rising in Ennistymon, County Clare, Ireland to Jack and Delia (Daly) Curtin. Mary was known as Maisie among her four siblings, Kathleen (Paddy Crowe), Francie (Lizzie), Bridget (Tommy Stackpoole), and Michael. As a child, she collected eggs, milked the cow, stacked the turf and loved racing her donkey. At the Convent of Mercy, math and step dancing were her favorite subjects. Mary never lost her thirst for living despite spending fearful nights in the woods or seeing her priest shot from the altar during the revolution. In 1937, she followed her sister Kathleen to Salisbury-Wiltshire, England to study to be a nurse at Old Manor Hospital. Graduating in 1940, Mary continued to work for the American and British Red Cross during WWII. The war meant nights sitting in a bomb shelter, dancing with and comforting patients that could not be moved to the shelter along with good times spent with friends at a pub and competing on the hospital basketball and ping pong teams. Mary left England in 1946 to move to the United States to marry her now deceased husband, Addison Fales. Following her move to the United States, Mary worked at St. Lawrence Hospital tending to the newly born babies. Later, while working at Olin Health Center, she was known as the nurse with TLC among the athletes. She was a longtime member of the Church of the Resurrection.

Mary will be lovingly remembered by her daughter, Beatrice (Larry) Clink; her son, Patrick (Aileen) Fales; her grandchildren, Stephen and Laura (Dr. Dominick Trapani) Clink, Collin (Elizabeth), Sean; Patrick Addison and Peyton Fales, along with many nieces and nephews in Ireland including J.J., Martin and Paudie Crowe and Tom (T.J.), Michael, Willie Stackpoole and Ann (Stackpoole) Sexton.

Mary loved a party, was known both for her brogue and storytelling, and would never let a visitor go hungry. She took care of her friends and they took good care of her. Mary was the prototype for a strong-willed opinionated Irish nurse with a madcap sense of humor. Most of all, Mary was a survivor and would want everyone to “Never Grow Old! Stay Young (and Healthy)!”

The Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Monday, March 9, 2020 at 11am at Church of the Resurrection, 1527 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing with Fr. William Lugger presiding. Rite of committal will follow in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery. The family will receive friends one hour prior to Mass at the church, and on Sunday, March 8, 2020 from 4pm to 7pm at Gorsline Runciman Funeral Homes, Lansing Chapel, 900 E. Michigan Lansing, where the Scripture Service will be held at 7pm.

The family would like to thank the Gateway Hospice Team in Pittsburgh for their loving care and support. Please no flowers. Instead memorials can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.