Pat Casavant has been with Decatur House for only a month, yet already she is a cheerful presence at nearly every activity and social gathering.
“I’m happy to be here!” she said. “The food is wonderful, the people are friendly and the activities are fantastic!”
Pat is also happy to be back on Cape Cod, a place she first visited in her college days.
Previously, she and her family vacationed in Hull, where her grandfather had built a cottage in 1918.
“That’s where I got my love of the ocean, but the water in Hull was cold!” she said. “Then I discovered the Cape had warm water.”
On the Cape, Pat also has family nearby, an important consideration since early 2020, when she lost Arthur, her husband of 65 years.
She is proud of her four adult children—each a success in their chosen career—11 grandchildren and 4-month-old great-grandson.
Pat had a long and interesting career as an educator, working in several Boston-area school systems before joining the Massachusetts Department of Education, where she worked for 13 years.
Pat’s teaching role was a bit of an anomaly: she was a home economics teacher without a home.
“I was a traveling teacher, going from school to school, and I loved it!” she said. “I sometimes visited seven schools in one day—I drove with a sandwich in my face,” she added with a laugh, before singing a line from “On the Road Again.”
Pat spent her summer vacations traveling, to destinations in the continental U.S., Hawaii and Europe, where she had a special affinity for Paris and Italy.
“But I always loved Cape Cod,” she said. “I’m so happy to return here in my early 90s as a retiree.”
Welcome to Decatur House Pat!
