Patricia Pantell

August 15, 1924 to April 23, 2025

Patricia Pantell was born on August 15, 1924, to Ta' ai Ah-ju to Mrs. Lo Erh-Icu and Mr. Ta'ai, nee Liang.

Because of the family poverty and instability of her birth family, she was adopted at the age of 7 through the Chinese Anglican Church by Oscar Kwok and Ann Lo. When Ann Lo died two years later, Pat was raised by Ann Lo’s mother, whom Pat called grandmother, alongside Mabel and Mary.

Pat attended a private British school, where the Chinese girls were assigned English names after common flowers. Pat was given the name Pansy.

At the outbreak of the war between China and Japan in 1937, the school closed, and Pat, along with others, relocated to the countryside away from the fighting.

Returning to Shanghai, Pat found work, eventually leading her to the Chinese United Nations. It was there that she met James “Jim” Pantell. Jim was a lieutenant commander in the US Navy from 1942 to 1946, and stayed on for two years, running an import/export business shipping furniture from Shanghai to San Francisco.

Jim and Pat married in Shanghai, China, in March 1947. In October the following year, John Pantell was born.

Nearing the close of the Chinese Communist Revolution and the proclamation of the People's Republic of China, Americans were ordered to leave China. Jim bribed an official with a case of whiskey to obtain the necessary paperwork for Pat to leave China. On Christmas Eve, 1948, Pat and her baby, John, boarded a plane that took them to San Francisco.

Jim would follow later.

Mabel and her lifelong partner, William, both educated, English speakers, were sent to Communist re-education camps. It would be decades before they would find one another again.

Pat and John landed in San Francisco, where Pat met Jim’s family for the first time and stayed with Jim’s half-sister Lillian R. Black. There, Pat strove to learn the necessary household tasks she had never done before.

The couple would raise their family on Spring Street in Redwood City, where Patricia in 1950 and Corinne was born in 1951 in close succession, and move to the family farm on Hart Road in Modesto after Pat retired from the San Mateo Building Inspection Department (1958-1980). They traveled, shopped, and farmed. She watched her children grow and have children of their own.

Wherever Pat lived, both with Jim and after his death from pneumonia on October 11, 1992, she brought her love of gardening, dancing, poker playing, good food, and good sweets with her. She filled the role of a traditional 1960s housewife with goodness, thriftiness, strength and constancy, working to keep things looking good and going well.

In 1971, Jim was diagnosed with throat cancer and had a tracheostomy. For over twenty years, Pat would prepare his meals and give them to him privately, maintaining the dignity he so deeply desired. She corresponded regularly with Mabel and Mary, whom Corinne and her son-in-law Steve found when they visited China after the borders opened. She marveled at the ability to send email instantly after years of waiting three weeks for letters to arrive.

In 2004, Pat moved to Friendly Village on Prescott Road in Modesto, then in 2014 to a cottage in Samaritan Village. It was while living there that Pat was diagnosed with dementia. She relocated briefly to Felton to continue receiving around-the-clock care from son John, daughter-in-law Pam, and granddaughters Monica and April before moving to Building A of Samaritan Village, where she could have access to more specialized care for her dementia.

It was then that Kuldeep and Pearl, who worked at Samaritan Village, met Pat and became like family, providing time and care filled with love for her until her death.

In April this year, Pat showed a marked change. She entered her final stage during Easter week. She died at 9:15 a.m. on April 23 with John and Corinne by her side.

Pat Pantell lived over 100 years.

She was strong, hardworking, straight-faced –except if you misbehaved– resolutely and unflinchingly loving.

She was Pat Pantell, and we will never forget her.

Patricia Pantell is survived by her son John, her daughters Corinne and Patricia, their spouses Pam, Steve, and Tom, grandchildren Monica, Brian, April, Jen, Kathryn, and Daniel, and great-grandchildren Mikayla, Michael, Miriam, James, Regina, Peter, Stella, Ambrose, Felix and Niko.

A Funeral Mass to honor the life of Patricia Pantell will be held on May 2 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, 7820 Fox Road in Hughson, with a reception to follow at Samaritan Village Almond Room, 7700 Fox Road in Hughson.