Anna Bel (Cruz) Pacheco

Anna Cruz Pacheco
Born Weetamoe Farm  in Bristol

       
Anna Bel Cruz Pacheco, 94, of Bristol, peacefully passed away on Saturday 9, 2018, at St. Elizabeth Manor.  She was a former resident of Benjamin Church Manor. Anna was born to parents Joseph and Gertrude (Barboza) Cruz at Weetamoe Farm in Bristol in 1924.  She was a life-long resident and former wife of Joseph P. Pacheco who preceded her in death.
Her enthusiastic career spanned seven decades. As a young teenager, she began part-time domestic employment.  In 1941 Anna entered the manufacturing industry taking employment at Gilman’s Sewing Shop; Best Made Dress Co.; Bristol Manufacturing Co.; Crown Fastener Co.; Converse Rubber; and PF Industries.  While retiring in 1979 to attend to aging parents, she resumed part-time employment in 1991 until 2008 at Coastal Medical Associates as an office worker and serving as a Portuguese interpreter. Finally, she ended her career as a part-time octogenarian home health aide with Access Care.  During War World II she followed her husband’s Navy deployment down the East Coast, eventually rendezvousing in San Francisco and residing in the somewhat familiar surroundings of a Navy base Quonset hut. That cross-country odyssey revealed a nearly lifetime addiction to Coke as a search for the “real thing” on the street resulted in the train and luggage leaving the station somewhere in the Mid-West without her.
Anna exemplified the adage “if you want something done, give it to a busy person”.  Her character was of uncommon productivity and industriousness. From preoccupations of sewing her own clothes as a teenager; crocheting; crafting; housework; baking; refinishing a bedroom set and wood floor; or merely mowing the lawn, each filled otherwise idle hands and moments until day’s end. Her anecdotes of living on a farm in Bristol during the thirties are foreign to us now: walking home from school on the Common down the middle of the “back road” though she did manage to get hit once getting the mail; purchasing gifts downtown where clerks knew recipient sizes;  earning pocket money for 4th of July by picking and selling strawberries alongside the farm’s stonewall; sitting around a console radio with family members doing domestic chores: sledding down upper Mt. Hope Avenue on a mythical contraption venerably referred to as the Reach; hanging out at DeWolf Pond with the skating gang; anticipating a spotlight beam greeting from a Fall River Line steamer bound for New York City during summer evening campfires at Weetamoe’s shoreline; or childhood anticipation of a mid-summer’s evening passed away in idle hours of kick-the-can which continued until her grandchildren entered college.
Her unselfish devotion, self-sacrifice, and caring for family and friends are the hallmark of her love and living legacy to her family.  She will be dearly missed by beloved family and friends. Anna appeared happiest when helping and attending to the needs of others. In time, she begrudgingly self-identified as finally being old in her eighties.  While never found at the center of attention, she was the bond that kept the family together and was the keeper of traditions.
In addition to being a Communicate of St. Mary’s Church and member of the Daughters of Isabella. during the War she participated in the Volunteer Fighter Command – an Army/Air Force Aircraft Warning Service Reserve manning a watch tower atop Tower Hill.  She served as a den mother for Cub Scout Pack 14 Den 3; proudly marched in the color guard of the Ocean State Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps, along side her sister Margie, in her mid-seventies. An impassioned interest included yard “sailing” and plotting Saturday courses through local neighborhoods, for jettisoned personal possessions and bargains while rescuing scores of deserted teddy bear crew members. They were donated to a children’s organization after the motley mutinous crew captured her home relegating family members and visitors to kitchen chairs.
Mrs. Pacheco leaves two sons, Allen Pacheco and wife Diane, of Scottsdale, Arizona and Rodney Pacheco of Bristol, and former daughter-in-law, Dianne Blomquist; grandchildren, Jonathon and spouse Andrada Pacheco of Danbury, Connecticut and Tawnia Pacheco and partner Lisa of Rocky Hill, Connecticut; in addition to two great grandchildren, Angela and Emelia. She was preceded in death by her siblings: Joseph Cruz, II; Marjorie C. Sousa; Beatrice Sousa; and Marie Amaral.


Funeral services from the Sansone Funeral Home, 192 Wood Street, Bristol, Monday, December 17, 2018 at 9:00 AM with a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:00 AM in St. Mary’s Church, 330 Wood Street, Bristol. Burial will follow in North Burial Ground, Hope Street, Bristol. Visiting hours will be Sunday, December 16, 2018 from 2:00-5:00 PM. For online condolences, shared memories, information and directions go to www.sansonefuneralhome.com

 

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