Patricia "Pat" Alice Morin

Patricia "Pat" A. (Sullivan) Morin, who was born in 1923 in Dorchester, Mass., as the youngest of seven children to plumbing company owner Patrick J. Sullivan and his wife, Alice (Archdeacon) Sullivan, died peacefully on June 19, 2017 in Attleboro, MA, at age 93.Though the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur at St. Mark's Elementary School in Dorchester, where she entered first grade at age five, were "tough," Pat recalled, she confided she escaped some of their sternness in later grades when she became disabled. The summer after fourth grade, she was stricken with polio; it was a time when the dread disease was spreading but little was known about how to treat it.She recently described the day her legs gave out: "I remember I was playing with my girlfriend across the street, and I couldn't come home. They had to come get me," she said. "Polio was shooting around Boston like mad... I said to my father, 'I have infantile paralysis, don't I?' And he said, 'I think you do,' and I said, 'What does that mean?' " Initially quarantined at home, and bedridden with only her beloved oldest sister, Alice, to care for her, she was visited often by highly respected physicians at Children's Hospital who tracked her progress fighting the disease. She could only speak with her family through a doorway, and felt the love of her playmates in an unusual way: "My brother put a mirror up to the window. Anyone who wanted to see me would wave through the mirror, and I'd wave back." Eventually, she received tutoring, and spent time reading and playing with paper dolls.After a year and a half, therapy sessions helped her regain enough strength to walk in a pool, and she then was fitted with braces. They were painfully stiff, Pat said, but that wasn't going to stop her. "It had been snowing and nasty, but I had to try out my braces... so the whole family was walking me around the block with everybody in Dorchester coming out to see this - that felt good to be able to walk!" She recalled all of her cousins pitching in to drive her to Children's Hospital for her regular checkups. Her progress was so remarkable that she was asked to demonstrate her mobility in front of young medical students at Harvard, a routine that continued until she became old enough to be embarrassed by the attention. She kept up her studies and graduated from Mount St. Joseph Academy, a Catholic high school for girls in Brighton, MA. Pat proceeded to live a long, full and love-filled life, marrying handsome Navy officer Alfred "Al" Morin in the midst of World War II, crisscrossing the country to meet him at various ports and steal a few hours together and, post-war and back at home, dancing up a storm at Mosley on the Charles in Dedham.She worked in an insurance office during the war, and for forty years served as legal secretary for her husband. She also worked briefly for ARP Instruments International Inc. in Newton, MA, where she loved chatting with the musicians who came in to buy what were, at the time, cutting-edge music synthesizers. Very musical, she sang in the choir at the family's church, St. Joseph's in Needham, and joined Sweet Adelines briefly, until the travel commitment proved too much.She raised a family of five sons and one daughter in Natick and then Needham, helping out at scout meetings and field trips, and cheering at sports events. She was always intrigued by her children's' music preferences, and her favorite times were when her large family was together harmonizing to the Beatles and other songs, to which she would add her inimitable style. She loved a party and devilishly set off firecrackers every year on the Fourth of July, much to her lawyer husband's consternation. Pat was happiest in the sun, on Cape Cod in the summer and in Florida in the winter, with Al, family members and many friends gathering at their Lake Worth condo. Some of her fondest memories were times spent on the Cape with her sisters, Alice and Catherine, and their spouses, Bill Bennett and David Concannon, respectively.Pat kept up her resilience and love of life, and was dubbed "the fun one" by caretakers at the Life Care Center of Attleboro, where she had lived since 2015, and previously at the Christopher Heights assisted-living facility in Attleboro, where she resided for thirteen years and served as president of the residents' association for several years. Besides her constant companion, Joseph Cerrito, 96, of Attleboro, she leaves her beloved children: Alfred L. Morin, PhD, and his wife, Paulette R. Goeden, of Northborough, MA; J. Whitney Morin, PhD, and his wife, Jill Levenson of Coral Springs, FL, and his former wife, Jane Munstedt of Brooklyn, NY; Gregory P. Morin, PhD of North Reading, MA; Patricia M. Fitzgerald and her husband, Terence K. Fitzgerald, of Foxboro, MA; Attorney Barry E. Morin of Framingham, MA; and Mark D. Morin, M.A., of Framingham, MA. Pat was predeceased by her husband, as well as her six siblings: Austin Sullivan, Brendan Sullivan, Francis Sullivan, Alice Bennett, Catherine Concannon, and the Rev. John Whitney Sullivan, S.J. She leaves ten grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and many beloved nieces and nephews.Family and friends are invited to honor and remember Pat by gathering for a Visitation on Friday, June 23, 2017, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the "Memorial Chapel" of the Dyer-Lake Funeral Home, 161 Commonwealth Ave., Village of Attleboro Falls, North Attleborough, and at a Mass of Christian Burial on Saturday, June 24, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church, 133 North Main St., Attleboro. Burial services will be held at a later date in the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.Donations may be made in Pat's memory to the Christopher Heights Resident Activities Fund, 45 South Main Street, Attleboro, MA 02703, or to the Alzheimer's Association, P.O. Box 96011, Washington, DC 20090-6011. Arrangements are under the direction of the Dyer-Lake Funeral Home, 161 Commonwealth Avenue, Village of Attleboro Falls, North Attleboro. (508) 695-0200