Amy Jo Paine

It is with a profound sadness and the heaviest of hearts that we share the passing of our sweet mother, Amy Jo Paine, who left this world on June 24th, 2025. Amy had a gentle soul and the kindest of hearts, she was a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin and cherished friend to so many.

Amy was born on September 9th, 1962. She and her 6 siblings grew up spending summers in Wellfleet at Paine’s Campground, which her parents Bob and Cynthia Paine founded in 1952. As a youth, with her beloved black horse, Princess, she entertained and delighted campers by giving them horseback rides around the campground, for which she charged a whooping 25 cents. Meeting hundreds of campers from all over the world most certainly played a role in developing her friendly and cheerful demeanor she would carry with her through life. Every 4th of July she carefully wove wild roses into wreaths for Princess to wear in the town parade, who she then rode bareback. If Amy wasn’t riding Princess, she was running through the back woods of Wellfleet barefoot and tanned or ripping around on dirt bikes, always on a mission, and always on the go. Her love for music meant she was often the first out on the dance floor, and she most certainly knew the hokey-pokey. With her fashionable sense of stye and her infectious laugh she was always easy to spot and hear in a crowd.

Winters were spent in New Hampshire, where she learned to ice skate, sled, throw a snowball and SHOVEL, lots of shoveling. She did much of the same running around up north as she did down here on the Cape. Attending grade school there and ultimately graduating from Hollis High School. A few years after High School Amy married and had her first two sons, Rob and Dan. She divorced and later in life had her third son, John.

In her later years Amy delighted in the arts, from cooking, writing short stories, painting sunsets, making seashell jewelry, or telling tall tales by the fire. But it was her poems and birthday jingles everyone looked forward to the most! On top of story telling, she was also aways a great listener and shoulder to lean on for moral support. She loved the summer sun and the wild flowers Cape Cod summers were always sure to bring. Suffering from severe arthritis and other bone aliments as well, she studied herbal remedies and loved her plants and garden, even making wild dandelion and ginger tea to help with her inflammation. Along with many other natural tinktures and cures for this or that. Winter was not always her favorite, but she did love her extended winter visits to Colorado to be with her oldest son Rob, his wife Natalie, and their four boys, James, Beckett, Nathan and Everett. The mountain sunsets always amazed her. “The Majestic Mountain Sunsets” she would call them. If she wasn’t off on adventures in Colorado she loved getting over the bridge and “Off The Island”, as she would say, to visit with John and his son Landon. Or sneaking up to Boston for Bruins games with Dan. But she was always most proud of her grandchildren, having five grandsons who she absolutely loved and dotted upon. Her kind heart and gentle soul will be sorely missed.

If you are able, please help us in sending Amy off on one last horseback ride into the sunset. I know she would love to see you all there! Services will be held on Wednesday July 9th from 4pm-7pm at Nickerson’s Funeral Home in Wellfleet.