Patricia Provost Roberts

Patti was many things to many people. She led by example every day, unselfishly for her daughter, friends, and coworkers, how to be an independent woman.

She was born in Hanover, New Hampshire to Norman and Jeanne Provost. She was the product of a small New England town and later went to school to be a Nurse. After graduating from nursing school she married Becki’s father Bill. They lived in Littleton, New Hampshire where Bill worked as a TV repair man in the basement of their house and Patti was a Nurse for Littleton Regional Hospital, where she worked in the ER and occasionally went out with the ambulance and medical helicopters to attend to accident victims. She even spent some time in the maternity ward which she vowed to never do again.

A few years after the passing of Bill, she moved away from family and friends to Florida, to escape the cold winters and icy roads. She set out to prove everyone wrong, that she and her young daughter could make a better life for themselves and she did so every day. She moved to Dunedin taking a job as a Nurse at Mease Dunedin Hospital and then transferred to Mease Countryside, a newer and slightly larger facility at the time. She welcomed the challenges the new opportunity afforded her. As Becki got older and could better care for herself, Patti moved to the night shift where the lack of patient families and shift differential was much more appealing. She could better care for her patients without the meddling families in her way. She moved up in the ranks at Countryside training, teaching, mentoring young nurses and staff in her very unique way. She was a no non-sense nurse but always made time for the occasional virgin tequila sunrise or wheelchair race. She loved all the nurses she worked with and they meant so much to her. She worked at Countryside for over 20 years and looked forward to retirement.

She spent her time away from the hospital with her daughter Becki who she shared a love of animals with. As baseball fans they we ecstatic when Boston finally won the World Series and then slowly changed their loyalties to the Rays once the team started to really develop becoming season ticket holders, they enjoyed many games together. They also enjoyed shopping and going to lunch together when she was not working a weekend shift.

Patti lived a quiet simple life; to her family, her friends and her work she gave much, and asked for very little in return.

In April Patti discovered she had lung cancer. The disease rapidly took her from us. She fought the entire time in a role she was not accustomed to, as a patient and a victim of this terrible disease.

We will always remember Patti as a nurse, a mentor and teacher, a role model, a friend, and a loving mother.