Patricia Eilene Merwarth

Patricia Rodgers Merwarth was born on October 7, 1930 and died January 7, 2021 of complications of congestive heart failure. She grew up in a small town in northern New Jersey where she made friends that lasted a lifetime including her husband, Dick. They became high school sweethearts, married eight years later and remained much in love for sixty seven years of marriage.
Pat earned a nursing degree from Duke University School of Nursing and practiced in a medical office and on the wards of Duke Hospital. A highlight of her nursing career was the summer she spent as a camp nurse. She gave unlimited affection to the children many of whom were from orphanages and foster homes. Understandably, she was the favorite staff member.
After her first child was born she devoted her life to her family. With love, tireless efforts and unerring common sense she guided their three children to adulthood and, in all ways, supported her husband in his profession as a physician. She was an outstanding cook and a master knitter whose works are treasured family heirlooms. She was an accomplished potter. At age fifty she returned to college for several semesters not to obtain a degree but for the joy of learning new things.
When the children married and had their own children, she basked in the role of grandmother. In addition, she and her husband began a series of outdoor adventures that included camping and kayaking for a month in Alaska, rafting through a large part of the Grand Canyon and canoeing from one side of the Okeefenokee Swamp to the other seeing many alligators and wondrous birds but no people for three days. They bought a thirty foot cruising sailboat and gained experience sailing on the rivers and sounds of North Carolina and Virginia. When her husband retired, they journeyed down The Intercostal Waterway to Florida and across The Gulf Stream to The Bahamas where they spent four warm winters living aboard the boat. Those adventures, particularly sailing a small boat to distant places, would have been impossible without her. “How fortunate I am to have such a companion and shipmate,” her husband often said.
She was beautiful and loved dearly, more dearly than any spoken or written word can tell.
The Merwarth family is under the care of Hall-Wynne Funeral Service, Durham, NC.