Paula H. Hampson

Born on January 9, 1926 in Taunton, MA, Paula Helen (Hathaway) Hampson was a Yankee of a lineage extending back to several Mayflower members. She was the daughter of late Taunton attorney Ellsworth A. Hathaway, Esq. and the late Miriam (Strange) Hathaway. Paula grew up loving her family, friends and Cape Cod summers at the beach on Martha's Vineyard and Pocasset. She delighted in sailing with her dad and friends, sailboat racing, swimming and family get-togethers.

Paula graduated from Taunton High School and went on to graduate from Westbrook College and Posse College with a degree in physiotherapy. She worked as a physical therapist at what is now UMass Medical Center in Worcester, MA, and later at the Sturdy Medical Center in Attleboro. She taught developmentally challenged children at the Pollack School in Brookline, her favorite job. A talented teacher, she was offered a position as the director of a new school for the developmentally challenged in Springfield, but chose instead to marry and raise a family. She was also librarian at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Paula met Frank Hampson when he was four years old living in a nearby cottage in Pocasset. They grew up enjoying summer fun at the beach. In 1951, they married, lived briefly in Bridgewater, and settled in Abington, MA, for 18 years where Frank had a greenhouse business growing carnations and other flowers. They then returned to their roots on Cape Cod.

Family and love were Paula's most cherished values and she devoted herself to her husband; her daughter Valerie; and her son Brad, his wife Odette and their children, Ken and Ashley. Paula was passionate about the joy of family and giving at Christmas; she would plan all year to recreate the magic of the Christmases she had known as a child in a large extended family, at the scale of a smaller family but with no less zeal and excitement.

A lover of music, Paula played the piano, organ and guitar. She enjoyed dancing to the tunes of the big bands and was thrilled to see many of the bands play live music.

Paula had a lifelong love of reading and would often read a book in a single night. She had a quick mind and valued education highly. Her strong sense of humor continued to sparkle through many later years of illness.

On March 27, 2013, Paula passed on to what she called her "next great adventure".