Margaret M. (Breen) Meaney, 97, a longtime resident of Framingham, died Thursday, October 10th, 2024, after a period of declining health. Margaret was born and grew up in the small coastal town of Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland during the Depression. She was the 7th of 8 children and was the last surviving member of her generation. Her family lived above the family business, a local shop in Glengarriff Road selling groceries such as meat, bread, milk, and sweets in the time before supermarkets became common. The shop remained in the family until the 1980’s and was a hub of socializing, news, and of course all the local gossip on which all small country towns thrive.
Margaret came to America in 1955 on a 2 year work visa and initially lived with her cousins the Roches, they of supermarket fame. It was during this time that Margaret met John Meaney of East Boston, and they were married in 1957. John and Margaret had 5 sons in 8 years which caused John to often quip that “she got married on Labor Day and has been in labor ever since.”
Since having 5 sons around the house was not enough, she took on the task of getting her LPN and then her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Framingham State, graduating in 1982. She worked for 21 years as a nurse at St. Patrick’s Manor on the graveyard shift which afforded her the peace and quiet she could not get at home.
Margaret’s great passions were reading, travel and endless amounts of walking since she never learned to drive. She and her sister-in-law Peg exchanged Harlequin romances and Mills and Boon romantic fiction in huge quantities, usually by swapping shopping bags full of books at family gatherings. Margaret loved to travel and visited Ireland every two years to see family and friends as well as several visits to Australia and taking pleasure cruises with John.
She is survived by: her daughter-in-law Maria and granddaughters Marissa and Michela of Newton; her son Brian, daughter-in-law Eileen and grandson Brian of Framingham; her granddaughter Sinead and grandson-in-law Phil and great granddaughter Maggie of West Roxbury,; her son Michael, her daughter-in-law Shaan and grandchildren Sasha, Lara, Hunter and Spencer of Sydney Australia; her son Tim; and her Son Tom, daughter-in-law April and grandchildren Emily, John, Michael and Bradley of Deridder, Louisiana.
Besides her husband John, Margaret was predeceased by her son, Shaun, as well as her brothers and sisters in Ireland, England and America.
Family and friends will honor and remember Margaret’s life by gathering for a time of visitation in the Holy Family Chapel of St. Patrick’s Manor, 863 Central St. Framingham on Wednesday morning, October 16th beginning at 9 o’clock. Her Funeral Mass will follow in the Chapel at 10 AM. Interment in St. Stephen Cemetery, Framingham.
Arrangements by the McCarthy, McKinney & Lawler Funeral Home of Framingham. To share a memory with Margaret’s family, kindly visit www.mccarthyfh.com
Norton Funeral Home