Mary Meade, 56, a registered nurse who raised five sons and was tirelessly devoted to her elderly nursing home patients, died of a heart ailment Tuesday, Feb. 20, while vacationing with relatives in Siesta Key, Fla. Her parents’ only surviving daughter, she grew up caring for her eight brothers, and knew from the time she was a girl that she wanted to be a nurse, said her husband of 31 years, John M. Meade. “All she had was men in her life,” her husband said. Born in Floral Park, N.Y., her family soon moved to Wilmette, where she was among the first students to complete four years of study at the newly founded Regina Dominican High School. A 1965 graduate of St. Therese Hospital Nursing School in Waukegan, she was a general floor nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chicago. She and her husband lived briefly in Bay Village, Ohio, before returning to the Chicago area. They have lived in Northfield since 1983. In search of part-time nursing work, Mrs. Meade began working in nursing homes, first in Ohio and later in Illinois. Most recently, she had worked at Brentwood North Rehabilitation and Specialized Health Care Center in Riverwoods for more than five years. In the 1980s, Mrs. Meade nursed her dying grandmother. She cared deeply for her nursing home patients, many of whom were neglected by their families, her husband said. “She’d buy underwear for them and if their lips were chapped, she brought them ChapStick,” he said. “Mary had a big heart for those people, and many times she would be home crying over the loss of a patient, and we would say, ‘You did all you could.'” Although Mrs. Meade officially worked part time, she was constantly filling in for nurses who called in sick or had to miss work, her husband said. A member of St. Philip the Apostle Church in Northfield, she prayed and attended church often. She recently celebrated the birth of her first grandson. Other survivors include sons John, Thomas, Michael, Richard and James; her father, Jack Brinckerhoff; her stepmother, Anne; brothers Joseph, John, Paul, Peter, Andrew, Frank and Philip Brinckerhoff; and a grandson. A funeral mass will be said at 10:30 a.m. Monday in St. Philip the Apostle Church, 1962 Old Willow Rd., Northfield.
