Florence Tease

July 26, 1917 - January 5, 2011

Florence A. Tease 1917 - 2011 CHICOPEE � Florence Ann Tease, 93 died Wednesday January 5, 2011, of congestive heart failure. She was born in the Willimansett section of Chicopee on July 26, 1917, the 13th of 14 brothers and sisters and daughter of Doria and Regina (Bourque) LaPlante, all of whom predeceased her. A life-long resident of Chicopee, she loved to skate and people watch. She worked at Sickles and Spaulding in Chicopee and then later was head housekeeper at the Shine Inn, Treadway Inn and The Yankee Pedlar. She is a graduate of the Mount Carmel School on Chicopee Street, and was married to Harry W. Tease on June 23, 1941, in the original Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, later becoming a member of Saint Patrick�s Church on Broadway Street. Despite her elementary education, she had an incredible eye for detail and was extremely perceptive particularly when it came to people and daily political and international events. If you missed the news, all you needed to do was call �Flo� for an update � she had the unique ability to view both sides of most issues. Florence always had something funny to say that was usually unexpected, which made speaking with her an adventure. She encouraged her �kids� to be upstanding, polite and �always have on clean underwear�. Above all things, her greatest desire was for her family to always remain together, compassionate in love. Despite spending the first four years of her marriage alone as Harry was in Germany during WWII, Flo and Harry raised two sons, Robert H. Tease (born in 1942 and who died in 2009), and Bruce E. Tease, of Greenfield, MA (born in 1956). In additional to her sons, her pride and joy were her grandchildren: Dina, Shelly, Leannah, Adam and Kate, great grandchildren: Amber, Tanner, Page, Paris and Sienna, and two daughter in-laws, Gail Tease and Theresa Tease. She also leaves her memory to many nieces and nephews. After the death of her husband in 2003, she lived independently in her own home traveling on the PVTA senior bus to the grocery store where she enjoyed having coffee with all the �old people�, as she referred to her friends, most if not all were her junior. She particularly enjoyed her favorite bus driver, Lorenzo who went above and beyond to be her friend. She didn�t let her battle with congestive heart failure slow her down. She enjoyed the health care providers at RiverBend Medical Group on Montgomery Street who marveled at the medications she wasn�t on, and who made her feel special. After she fell at her home in September 2010, she was in and out of the Bay State Medical Hospital in Springfield and the Country Estates of Agawam rehab facility, where she received the greatest of care and compassion. She became a resident of the nursing home in November where she touched the hearts of her care takers and room mates. The prayers from her family, neighbors and friends of the Greenfield Second Congregational Church were greatly appreciated and felt since her fall. While Florence will be greatly missed by her friends and family, she gave so much of herself to those who knew her that it will be impossible to feel that she is really gone. We love you Me'me'. Say hi to Dad and Bob. There are no calling hours. There will be a Committal Service on Friday, January 14, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. in the Chapel at the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery. Family and friends are asked to meet at the cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made in Florence�s memory to the Second Congregational Church Faith Fund, 16 Court Square, Greenfield, MA 01301.