Betsy P. Cole

Betsy Ross Page Cole passed away peacefully on September 20th in her home in South Wellfleet. Born in New Haven, Connecticut on September 7, 1924 at 3 ½ pounds, Betsy lived a long and adventurous life. She spent her childhood summers with her two brothers and sister at the Ross home in East Middlebury, Vermont and never lost her deep love for Vermont. She married her high school sweetheart, Kenneth Johnson Cole, in 1946. Sharing their love of sailing, home, and family for the next 49 years, the Navy life took them from New Mexico, California and the east coast to living in Bahrain and travels to Spain, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey, always returning to their family home bases of New Haven, East Middlebury and Cape Cod. After Ken’s retirement and many years taking care of her mother following a stroke, they finally "retired" to their home in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Begun as a one room cabin from a plan in Woman's Day magazine in the first years of their marriage, that home had grown to be the center of their extended family.

She and Ken spent the next 15 years living aboard their succession of sailboats, usually in the Bahamas, for the winter months. Returning to the Cape in the warmer months, they shared their love of community in their dedication to the Wellfleet Congregational Church and Mustard Seed Kitchen, the Wellfleet Historical Society and the South Wellfleet Neighborhood Association. Gardening, sewing, quilting, rug hooking and untold other crafts were also a big part of Betsy’s life as she brought up her two children, Chuck Cole of South Wellfleet and Polly Cole of Thetford Center, Vermont. She also shared these joys with her five grandchildren: Cedar and Sky Freyss-Cole and Soleil Olson-Cole of South Wellfleet and William and Jennie Meglathery of Vermont.

Following Ken's sudden death in 1995 she carried on most of these shared projects in South Wellfleet. She continued her annual visits to Vermont and ventured to Denmark and Eleuthera to share in her older granddaughters’ academic achievements, swimming the reefs at the age of 83! In her final years, as her life was diminished by Alzheimer's, she was lovingly cared for by many of her extended family members often accompanying them in her wheelchair, becoming a fixture at many community concerts, events and celebrations. In her final weeks she was able to make a last trip with most of her family to her beloved Vermont to attend the wedding of her granddaughter, Jennie, and celebrate her own 90th birthday. Returning home to Paine Hollow, she passed away very gently, surrounded by her family.

Friends and family are invited to a memorial service to celebrate her life at 1PM on October 25, 2014 at the Wellfleet Congregational Church, followed by a gathering in the Fellowship Hall.

As a tribute to a life, well-lived...

Memorial donations may be made, in Betsy’s name, to The Pond Hill School Community Hall Restoration Fund, ℅ the Cape Cod Five Cents Bank in Wellfleet, MA or at www.swnasu.org or The Mustard Seed ℅ the Wellfleet 1st Congregational Church.