Patricia Sweeney Edsall

Edsall, Patricia Sweeney 3/27/1937 - 6/28/2015 Ann Arbor EDSALL MARY PATRICIA SWEENEY "PAT" Social worker, therapist, loving mother and grandmother, died unexpectedly in Ann Arbor, Michigan on June 28, 2015, from complications of advanced lung disease. She was 78. Born March 27, 1937, the only child of Michael and Cecelia (Frey) Sweeney, Pat grew up in Arlington, Virginia, and attended the Patrick Henry and St. Thomas More schools in Arlington and the Academy of Notre Dame in Washington, DC, where she was a popular student leader, served as an officer of her sorority, Alpha Gamma Beta, and (it is rumored) occasionally "cut" Friday Mass to hang out with her friends. After high school, she joined her closest cousin in attending the University of Connecticut, where she met her future husband, Thomas Edsall. They were married in 1957, settled in Ann Arbor, and had four children (Michael, Kathleen, Sheila, and Patrick). They divorced in 1974. Returning to college after a long hiatus, Pat received bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Michigan. After receiving her MSW from Michigan's School of Social Work, Pat and four other women started their own private counselling business, which they named "Tapestry." Originally conceived as a "feminist therapist counselling collective," Pat and her partners counselled individuals, couples, and groups at Tapestry for over 23 years. During that period, Pat and her partners were active in the Ann Arbor Women's movement, marching to "Take Back the Night", supporting "Women United Against the War", "Continuing Education for Women," and promoting many innovative ideas and social changes in relationships, creativity, and employment. Pat organized and facilitated the first courses in women's studies at Washtenaw Community College, where she and her Tapestry partners also taught "Assertion Training" courses to women, and where, as an admissions adviser, she helped women select courses that focused on jobs or careers not often pursued by women. After Tapestry, Pat continued to counsel clients privately and on behalf of governmental mental health organizations until she retired from Livingston County Community Mental Health Services in 2007. Outgoing, unassuming, often loquacious, and always kind-hearted, Pat took a keen interest in others, liked to laugh, and made many life-long friends. Proudly Irish, Pat shared her love for her heritage with her kids and treated them to a month-long visit to Ireland in 1986. Pat also loved the Atlantic Ocean beaches, took her kids there for summer vacations, and instilled in them a love for ocean swims, crabbing, outdoor showers, boardwalks, roller coasters and bumper cars, and the taste of malt vinegar on french fries. To the end, she doted on her grandchildren, with trips, stories, gifts, cards, calls, and lots of love. She is survived, deeply loved, and already missed by her four children, their spouses (Lorri, Alice, and Lisa), and eleven grandchildren (Bailey, Emery, Kate, Jackson, Ruby, Riley, Maxine, Martin, Gigi, Marcus and Malijah). A funeral mass will be held at St. Mary Student Parish, 331 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Saturday, July 11th, beginning at 5 p.m. Visitation Friday 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. at Muehlig Funeral Chapel, Ann Arbor. Contributions in her memory may be made to Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (http://www.railstotrails.org) or Smile Train (http://www.smiletrain.org). muehligannarbor.