Mary L. Vaillancourt

Mary Louise Vaillancourt was born in Acushnet, in a year she wouldn’t want to be disclosed. She was the daughter of Manuel Baptiste and Lucy (Perry/Sarmento/Baptiste) Rapoza. She grew up in North Dartmouth and had three brothers: Paul, Robert, Stephen; and three sisters: Ami (nee Margaret), Susan, and Lucy.

Her father and her brother Stephen died when she was young, and she married her high school sweetheart, Raymond Vaillancourt. She had two children, Renee Joel Vaillancourt McGrath and Christien Matthew Vaillancourt, and devoted her early adult life to her family.

She attended Dartmouth high school, obtained an Associates degree in nursing from Bristol Community College and worked as a psychiatric nurse at St. Luke’s Hospital for most of her career. She helped to put both of her children through college, eventually divorcing their father and charming several paramours with her wit and beauty. She eventually found her life partner in Jack Flynn of Norwood, whose family embraced her family throughout her long illness.

She enjoyed fine food (cooking and eating out) and shopping (especially for bargains), and was talented at cake decorating and interior design. She was fastidious about her appearance and always looked young and beautiful, even throughout her long struggle with cancer.

Her grandchildren, Camron and Mikayla Vaillancourt and Lucy and Cara McGrath, were the light of her life. She made an effort to develop close relationships with them, traveling to Montana 3-4 times per year to stay close to Renee’s children.

She was diagnosed with endometriod adinocarcinoma in 2010 and was treated for that disease for three years before going into remission. She took advantage of her improved health to take her children and their families on her “dream vacation” to Disney World in April of 2014.

Shortly after that trip, her cancer returned and was, at that time, determined to be synovial sarcoma. She chose the most aggressive forms of treatment, which resulted in an additional year of life, much of which was spent struggling with side effects of chemotherapy.

She was nonetheless able to visit family and friends in Florida, California and Montana, and spent the summer with her children and grandchildren, and a “Norman Rockwell-style” Thanksgiving with her family near Glacier National park before succumbing to her disease.

Her mother died in January of 2015 at age 91. Mary is survived by her partner; siblings (and their partners Sandra and Jan Baptiste, John Felici, Frank Ramos and Roger Craveiro); children; and grandchildren; as well as nephews Stephen Sylvia and Mark Baptiste; nieces Stefanie, Ameke, and Jada Baptiste, Jennifer Wallace, Robyn Ramirez, and Sasha Griffith; and grandnieces Cheyenne Cosme, Jaelyn Baptiste, Julia Toney, and Helaina Thomas. She died on what would have been her grandnephew Elias G. Bethke’s sixth birthday.

Before her death, she left a note requesting that we include the following in her obituary: "Please 'pay it forward' or just do something nice for someone at least once before you die. Sooner is always better than later, and you will never regret it. It doesn't have to cost a cent (a kind word, a compliment, help for the elderly, etc.)" A wake will be held at Dartmouth Funeral Home, 230 Russells Mills Rd., South Dartmouth on Thursday, April 30, 9:00 – 11:00 a.m., followed by a burial at Riverside Cemetery in Fairhaven and a reception at Century House in Acushnet.