Patricia “Paddy” Fallon

Patricia “Paddy” Fallon CCRN, age 70 of the Packanack Lake section of Wayne, passed on, just after midnight, on Sunday, March 24, 2019. She spent her final hours surrounded by her loving family.

Born in West Paterson, Paddy moved with her family to Packanack Lake at age two and spent the rest of her life in the home her father built. She was active in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish for most of her life. While attending DePaul High School, she volunteered at St Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson as an aide, and that began a 50+ year Nursing career. After graduating from St Joseph’s Nursing School she began working in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit where a great many of the young patients were terminally ill. More than a few came from under-privileged families and foster families and although she tried to keep it secret, it was not uncommon for Paddy to buy burial dresses for patients whose parents couldn’t afford it. On several occasions she paid for entire funerals and stayed in touch with the families… many of them to this day.

But quietly taking care of the less fortunate in her own back yard was not enough to satisfy Paddy’s sense of honor and charity. She joined the “Healing the Children Foundation” and over the years travelled at her own expense to the jungles of Panama, the grasslands of Kenya, the deserts of Morocco, the ghettos of Mexico and the Dominican Republic and any place on earth where she was needed, to care for children who needed plastic surgery to correct cleft lips or cleft palates. She was also part of one of the first surgical teams to provide corneal transplants, giving blind children of Bedouins and Nomads their first look at the world. Paddy was named Employee of the year and at one point, “Unsung Hero” in the town of Wayne, but the title she cherished most was Sister, Aunt and Godmother.

Even in her leisure, Paddy was truly the personification of a giving spirit. For many years, she loved relaxing in Cape Cod but eventually she shifted course and purchased a home down the Jersey Shore in Manasquan. She considered it a privilege and great joy to be able to regularly bless lots of friends, family and acquaintances with the keys to that house so that they also could enjoy a few days or a week in the sun, sand and surf. Friends, family and co-workers also came to know that Paddy’s home in Packanack Lake was the place to be for some of the best annual St. Patrick’s Day and Christmas parties where she always was such a gracious and fun-loving host. And if you attended one of her parties, you were sure to meet her dear Labrador Retrievers Cagny and Murphy, and later on in life, dear rescued dogs Cooper and Max.

Paddy was a super aunt to her nieces and nephews and she loved spending quality time with them and supporting them by cheering them on at their sporting events. Her grandnieces and grandnephews also got to spend quality time with Great Aunt Paddy as she would frequently invite them to her house for a sleepover and a chance to be spoiled by getting to do fun things their parents wouldn’t necessarily allow. Paddy had a fun spirit – one which was evident when she was riding her Honda CB360T motorcycle. She also had a determined and strong willed spirit – one which was expressed by riding that motorcycle in a full body cast necessitated by a diagnosis of scoliosis when she was in her late twenties.

Surely it that strong-willed spirit coupled with her gigantically generous heart that  enabled Paddy to be such a help and inspiration to the countless souls she was blessed to bless during her days on this earth.

Paddy was predeceased by her parents, William and Ellen Whitty Fallon, her brother-in-law Charles Ferrara, and her foster son William Hanley.

Surviving are Paddy’s sister and two brothers: Maureen Fallon Ferrara and William Fallon, Jr., both of Wayne, and George Fallon and his wife Betsy Knicos Fallon of Lake Stockholm; four nieces and nephews: Chuck and wife Laura Ferrara of Wayne, Joseph and wife Lisa Ferrara of Riverdale, Katie and husband Jason Macones of Wayne, and Amanda Fallon of Wayne; grandnieces and grandnephews: Kaylee, Makenna, Charlie, Max, Natalie, Reilly, Will and Evie; and countless cousins - especially Ruth who was such a great help navigating our family through this most difficult time.

MEMORIAL CONTRIBUTION INFORMATION

In lieu of flowers, those planning an expression of sympathy in Paddy’s name are asked to consider the:

Child Life Department

Please make check out to “The Child Life Department”

Please write “Paddy Fallon” in the memo line of the check

All checks should be mailed to:

Tiffany Shevchik

Child Life Department

St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital

703 Main Street

Paterson, NJ 07503

Thank you very much for your generosity.