My name is David Wright, these are some personal words as a form of celebration of the life of my mother, Mrs Patricia Margaret Wright (nee Cobb). My mother passed away on Tuesday 24 March 2020 at the Hartford Court Care Home, Portsmouth. Ironically, Hartford Court is located on the old St Mary’s Hospital site where my wife Jan presented Pat with her beloved Grand daughter, Cheri Louise in 1977, what comes around. 

I think the last clear exchange my Mother and I had was on Friday 20 March 2020, Jan and I were visiting her just before the Corona virus ‘Lock down’ took hold. And as I was going home, I said "I love you Mum." And Mum replied "Love you too." I cried most of the way home to Bath that day.

In these last few years she said that quite a bit as I usually telephoned her every night. Still it wasn't always that natural for her but I've always known how much she loved us. Nowadays people say ‘Love you’ all the time. Even men say it to their friends but then they also say things like trust me and I'll call you later. 

My abiding memories of the love are painted in her absolute joy at being able to contribute to the weddings of my daughter and son, Cheri and Tom. Pat revelled in the company of her two Great Grand children Henry and Thomas always referring to them as ‘her two little boys’. She was also immensely proud and felt incredibly blessed by the arrival of her Great Grand daughter Harlow.

I know she was thrilled and thankful to both my son Thomas and Lucy for the wonderful gift.Of course no one's perfect and Pat could be pretty determined in order to get her own way. Trying to persuade her to do something that she had made up her mind not to do was challenging in the extreme. Presenting a rational argument was almost pointless. One of the ploys that she used was to blame the hearing aid, in fact most of the conversations that we had recently were almost always one way; her way. One of my very few successes was to convince her to move into Hartford Court Care home, a lovely place to live and I am convinced she benefitted greatly from the move.

Patricia Cobb was born on Saturday 28 April 1928 to Thomas Oliver Charles Cobb and Louisa Margaret Cobb. To bring this date into context, the Armistice had been signed 10 years previously in 1918 and Britain would be at war again when Patricia was eleven in 1939. Britain was in the depths of a deep recession, in sum, times were hard.

Pat was part of a large and very close family with elder siblings Tom, Bill, John, Mary, Alec responsible for looking after the two younger children Pat and Stanley. Sadly, all her brothers and her sister Mary have now departed and I know she missed them terribly.

The Cobb family appear to have moved frequently in her early life and she often used to recall being bombed out of the Rose of England pub in Spring Street, watching my Grandmother removing broken glass from her back caused by the effects of the bombing. They next moved to Laburnum Grove, but the German bombers had obviously been informed as a stick of bombs fell along the road one night. With that kind of encouragement, the family decided to move further away from the heavy German bombing to live in Havant opposite the Catholic Church but close to yet another target, the railway sidings. After a short spell in Havant, the family then moved to Portsdown Hill, this time she could watch the German bombers as opposed to dodging them. She recounted many times, observing her father Tom, dodging bullets whilst running up Spring Street, past the Rose of England pub shouting at Pat and her younger brother Stanley to get out of the way, the Germans are coming. 

They moved to the bungalow (Westview) at 12 London Road after the war ended and Pat married husband Donald Wright on Saturday 28 February 1953 at Christ Church, Portsdown, they honeymooned on the Isles of Scillies and she was fond of recounting stories of the flight in a single engine Auster and the burst tyre landing at Penzance. Strangely, she seemed totally unconcerned at being asked to help push the damaged aircraft off the runway and onto the perimeter track.

Pat and Don enjoyed a very happy marriage of 51 years, Donald spent a good deal of time in the Middle East firstly with the Special Air Service (SAS) and subsequently with Airwork Services in Saudi Arabia. She has had her share of troubles, very, very poor hearing, total lose of teeth at an early age, three cancer operations and yet still she remained positive, alert and very aware. We use the term ‘Fighter’ too much perhaps, but she was definitely not a ‘snowflake’, she took life, shook it and moved on. A very determined lady.

Pat and Donald were blessed with two outstanding and beautiful children, Pamela and David. David was born 19 May 1954 with Pamela arriving 27 January 1958.  Unfortunately, Donald passed away on 9 January 2004, my mother has had 16 years to prepare the ‘To do’ list, so watch out Dad.

My mother will be sadly missed by Pamela and her husband Gavin. Pat will be greatly missed by my wife Jan and I, Grand Daughter Cheri, and husband Mike, and of course, the two ‘boys’, her Great Grandsons, Henry and Thomas. The very close and special relationship that her Grandson Thomas had with Pat will make this a particularly poignant moment as his partner Lucy has recently been blessed with a beautiful baby girl named Harlow.

Pat was supported by a very loyal and dedicated band of helpers who saw her through some very dark times with great love and care. 

Margaret
Karen
Karen
Peter
David and Denise
Paul and Janet
Shaun and Kelly

The staff and residents of Hartford Court Care Home where Pat spent her final months have been superb and she was very grateful for the support and encouragement provided by them on a daily basis. The Hartford Court team provided a first class service throughout her time with them and we are most grateful to them.

Thank you for all you support and help; If I have missed anyone, please forgive me.

They say ‘you never know what you have lost till its gone'. But I really did think I knew how good and wonderful she was but I actually didn't until this happened. Pat took everything life threw at her and just kept coming back for more. Throughout this battle Pat did all she could do to hang on whilst at the same time keeping her spirits high for us and she never complained once. We've been amazed and inspired by her. Now I realise that within the tragedy of Pat's final chapter she left a hidden gift. Inspiration.So rest in peace Mum. We will think of you and miss you. And when I say think of you I mean every day, and when I say I'll miss you, I mean always. I love you Mum.