Patricia "Patti" Farley

I have come to believe that God's love is weaved through our lives like a thread in a tapestry, of which we only see the unfinished underside. Patti is now next to our Lord in heaven looking at the finished side of His beautiful tapestry of love. He is showing her the thread she wove through the lives she touched. I met her when I was 10 years old and my family was going through a painful crisis. Patti tucked me under her wing and loved me unconditionally for the next 59 years. I babysat for many years for Tom and Patti. One night coming home from bowling she found me sitting in the rocking chair with Bret asleep on my chest. She bent over to stroke sweet Bret's head and whispered "you spoil my kids". I chuckled and whispered back, "you taught me how to spoil them". Patti became my biggest cheerleader and was always just a phone call away when I left Madison to join the military. When I brought my husband home to meet her, she quietly whispered in my ear as we hugged goodbye, "you picked a good one, I'm proud of you". She ended every conversation with "I love you". The very last time I talked to her a few weeks ago she told me how very much she loved me and made me promise I would never forget how much she loved me. I will forever think of her as my OM (other mother). This morning I reread a devotional I have on grief and this made me think of Patti. "Your story will live on in those you loved, not erased, but written deeper. Like a name carved not just in stone but in the fiber of who we've become. Your legacy will remain not in our pain but in our willingness to live. Your memory will endure not only in tears but also in smiles, in wisdom gained and your love that continues. Just as God promised to remember us always, your love, too has that same eternal quality-changing form perhaps, but never ending." Patti's unconditonal love will live on in all of us she had touched. I love you Tom, Erin, Bret, Pollee and all of your beautiful kids.

I came to know Patti while bowling at the Village Green Lanes. She was one of the nicest people I've ever met. Also a really good bowler! After several years I left this league and went elsewhere. However, I still kept in touch on FB. Loved her beautiful nails, often prepared for special occasions. She was such a Cubbies fan. They have lost their #1 fan. Family and friends have lost a dear person. My condolences.

My memories of Patti are full of small moments and big feelings. Admiring her latest manicure (usually Cubs-themed), dishing about our families, and acknowledging that I didn't send her enough pictures of my son to keep her updated (she was right, of course). She felt like a burst of color and light and warmth. I wasn't her blood relative, but she made me feel like I was one of her own. For 20+ years, she was my bonus grandma - how lucky for me! It still hasn't sunk in that I will never gush over her nails again, or see her face light up when I tell her about my toddler's latest interest. Every get-together will be missing something without her there. I will never forget her and I will always miss her.