Date of Birth:
Friday, May 19, 1922
Date of Death:
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Age:
95 years old

Ann Mary Garrett

The Funeral Mass of Dr. Ann Mary Garrett will take place Thursday, 14, September 2017, 10 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, with her brother, his eminence emeritus Bishop Christopher Jones, Diocese of Elphin, and his eminence Bishop John Quinn, Diocese of Winona, co-presiding. Rosary and visitation will begin at 9 a.m. one-hour prior to the funeral mass. Internment will be at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Los Altos, California, Wednesday, 20th September, following a Memorial Mass for Frank and Ann Garrett at St. Nicholas Catholic Church, Los Altos, California.

Our mother died Thursday, 7th September, at Charter House, Rochester, following a long and debilitating neurologic illness.

She was born 19th May, 1922 in Creggs, County Mayo (Ireland), to Christopher and Christina (née Hanley) Jones. As a young child, the family moved to Rathcroghan, Tulsk, County Roscommon, where she was raised on a farm. As the eldest of eleven children very early in life she acted as a mother to her younger siblings.

She received a medical degree from the National University of Ireland (Galway) in 1946 and worked as a house officer and registrar at Roscommon General Hospital. To further her medical education, she traveled to Moorfields Eye Hospital (London), and received advanced training as an ophthalmologist; she was accepted on the faculty there and lived and worked in London over 8 years.

It was in London that she met her future husband, Frank; they were married on 10th July 1956, in St. Mary’s Church, Haddington Road, Dublin.

She moved with her husband to the United States and worked for a time with the American Red Cross in Cleveland, Ohio. When her husband took up ophthalmology practice in Sunnyvale, California, she forwent her medical career to raise four children in Los Altos Hills, California. All of her children received their secondary school and university education in Dublin and all followed into their parent’s career of patient healthcare.  She was proud to become a citizen of the United States in 1986.

She volunteered teaching Catholic catechism to school children and caring for a refugee Vietnamese family in her home.  Active in her Catholic faith she was a daily communicant. People in California were surprised to learn she had practiced medicine in three countries, a fact she wore lightly; she was less modest about reminding people that she had driving licenses issued from three countries whenever people challenged her driving capability.

In November 2000, she moved with her husband to Charter House, Rochester, Minnesota.

She was predeceased by her husband of 59 years in April 2015. She is survived by her children, Martha Ging (Christopher) of Busselton, Western Australia, Brendan Garrett (Binerva) of Palo Alto, California, Christopher Garrett of Houston, Texas, Anne Marie Kramlinger (Keith) of Rochester; and her six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

The family would like to thank Dr. Rachel Havyer and the staff of the Mayo Clinic Hospice and Palliative Care Team, as well as the staff at the Charter House Retirement Community, for the loving care she received.

Memorials are suggested in lieu of flowers to the Mayo Clinic Poverello Fund at Saint Marys Hospital.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílis.