Petrea Ann (Wessman) Moriarty

Petrea Ann Wessman Moriarty was born in 1941 to Ernest and Grace Wessman, and was raised in Norwell, Massachusetts.  She graduated from Norwell High School, where she played basketball and field hockey, won the Bausch and Lomb Science Award and the Babe Ruth Sports Award, and was voted Most Athletic by her senior class.  After graduating from the McLean Hospital School of Nursing in Belmont and becoming a Registered Nurse with a psychiatric specialization, she worked with McLean’s patients.  Petrea married Francis Moriarty of Marlboro, Massachusetts, who became an officer in the United States Army.  They went on to raise five children at postings throughout the country.  After their divorce, she settled in Barnstable MA and worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield in Boston.

Petrea was an avid golfer, who moved to Florida in 1998, where she golfed year-round and worked as a director at Sandy Pines Residential Treatment Center.  She enjoyed traveling and made trips throughout the Caribbean, and north Atlantic countries.  She connected with relatives in her father’s birthplace of Hoganas, Sweden and explored that country as well as her grandmother’s native Denmark.  She was a talented painter, like her namesake Aunt Petrea, and her artwork was curated in galleries and treasured in her children’s and friends’ homes.

A devoted Catholic who served as a Eucharistic Minister and was especially active in her parishes throughout the 1970s and 1980, Petrea passed away peacefully on February 13th with her children in Denver, Colorado.

She is survived by her siblings, Dorothy Wessman LeClair of Bridgewater MA and William Wessman of Braintree MA; her daughter Karen  of Centennial CO; her son Michael of Litiz PA and his children Dylan, Andrew and Elizabeth; her daughter Heather of Nashua NH; her son Christopher of San Antonio TX and his children Shyann and Alexis; and her son Matthew of Parker CO and his children Nylen and Daniel.

A wake will be held from 5 to 8 pm on Thursday, February 23rd at McNamara-Sparrell Funeral Home, 30 Central Street, Norwell MA 02061.  A funeral Mass will be held at 10 am on Saturday, February 25th at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Bridgewater MA 02324. Interment will take place at the St. Thomas Aquinas Cemetery, Bridgewater, MA.

In lieu of flowers, remembrances in Petrea’s memory may be made to

American Cancer Society 

PO Box 22718

Oklahoma City, OK 73123 or

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 

424 E. 92nd Street

New York, NY 10128-6804