CHRISTINE GARDNER PATE
Aug. 20, 1930-Feb. 20, 2016
Christine Gardner Pate, 85, died peacefully Saturday at Aldersgate Retirement Community of Charlotte, N.C.
She was born Aug. 20, 1930, the sixth of 10 children, to Robert and Betty Carraway of Wayne County.
The Carraway family worked hard, often desperately hard, through the years of the Great Depression and World War II. But as they worked they sang, theirs a chorus that prevailed over poverty and hardship.
And fruits of the sacrifices borne by the 10 children were enjoyed in the good life they gave their children.
A service celebrating Christine's life will be held Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, at 7 p.m. in the chapel of Seymour Funeral Home, with her granddaughter, Maegan Gardner Hemphill presiding. Interment will be Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, at 11 a.m. in Wayne Memorial Park.
The family will receive friends Wednesday following the service at Seymour Funeral Home.
Christine was married to the late Guy M. Gardner, and following his death, to the late Dr. W.H. Pate.
She was mother to the late Dennis (Yvette) Gardner of Duncan, S.C., Phillip (Tressa) Gardner of Darlington, S.C., Michael (Jill) Gardner of Conway, S.C., and Becki Gardner (the late Tom Quick) of Charlotte, N.C.
She is survived by 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
She was preceded by nine brothers and sisters.
She attended Belfast Elementary School, where, in the fifth grade, Guy Gardner pointed at her and said, "I'm going to marry that girl."
At Pikeville High School, she played basketball, performed in school plays and danced a mean jitterbug.
She and Guy were class sweethearts.
For a year following graduation, and in preparation for being wife and mother, she attended nursing school in Rocky Mount, N.C.
In 1949, she and our father were married. She was 19 (by a month), he was 20 (by two months).
In fairly short order, she was a mother to four, Dennis, Phillip, Michael and Becki.
Christine was not only a mom, but also a Cub Scout mom, a mom to neighborhood children, and even some years later, coach mom of our Pony League baseball team.
She was a member of the local chapter of The Eastern Star.
She was an expert gardener, and took great pride in her beautiful and abundant flowers.
She loved to sing and dance and laugh. These were pieces of the rich, full life she lived and created for others.
Christine could take a joke and tell a joke. She could hold her own intellectually. And we never heard a word of gossip from her lips.
She was a dear friend, and enjoyed dear friends.
And there was never a greater advocate than she. Our mother supported her children's wishes, even if those wishes were not her own.
She knew the good life, and she lived it. She was generosity and kindness.
In the early 1970s, she enrolled at Wayne Community College, and received her nursing degree.
She worked at Wayne Memorial Hospital, but preferred private duty nursing, where she made others comfortable and safe in their final days.
Later, she worked with our dad in his country store and then in his gun shop.
Hers was a life of bounty and beauty. Anyone who sat at her table reaped the harvest of her talents in the kitchen: Steeping mounds of fried chicken, heaping bowls of fresh corn and butter beans, sliced tomatoes and cold cucumbers -- and biscuits that will never be duplicated.
Life's plentitude was never lost on her.
Following the death of Guy M. Gardner, she married Dr. W.H. Pate of Pikeville.
Children now grown, the two enjoyed the kind of life celebrated by the young, free to travel as they pleased, to spend days or weeks at the beach or fishing.
They found joy in new and old friends and in their children and grandchildren. And in each other.
Their time together was too short, but that time was a gift to our mother.
Christine Gardner Pate was solid in principal, but never judgmental of others. Her sense of fairness rang like as a tuning fork. She was authentic, always.
And even in her last days, she never lost her sense of humor. In her peaceful passing, she takes with her the integrity she lived by.
She loved truly and was truly loved.
In lieu of flowers and in thanks to the loving hands and hearts of those who cared for our mother, the family requests contributions to Aldersgate Resident's Association Christmas Fund, c/o Gaye Smith, 3800 Shamrock Drive, Charlotte, N.C., 28215.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.seymourfuneralhome.com.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on February 21, 2016 12:09 PM