Patricia Ann Moffa (nee Hoyland) passed away in April 2021 in New Mexico. Pat was 89 years old.

She was born in the Lansing, Michigan, area in 1932. She was the oldest of three children. She had a brother Jack (1934-1992) and a sister Mary Lou (m. Rembecki, 1937-2003). The family struggled during the Great Depression, moving around Michigan several times, especially around Battle Creek. Her mother, Helen Marie (Watson) Hoyland (1910-1992), would go on to divorce Robert W. Hoyland, shortly after the Depression. This led them to stay on the move, and by 1950, the family was living in Calhoun, Michigan.

In February 1951, Pat's first child, a daughter, Brenda Sue (d. 2014) was born. Pat would move to Aberdeen, Maryland, where she worked as a waitress. Brenda would live with Pat's mother Helen in Michigan. During this time, Pat would meet Anthony Michael Sacco (1932-2017), a Korean War soldier who was sent to the U.S. Army Aberdeen Proving Ground to receive treatment for the wound he received as part of an ambush in Korea. Pat and Tony would marry, and their first son, Carmen (Carm), was born in August 1952 in Aberdeen. 

The family would then move to Buffalo, New York, after Tony was discharged from the Army, where Tony's extended family lived. In October 1953, a second son, Anthony Jr. (Tony; d. 2010), was born. In 1958, Pat would give birth to another son, David. By late 1959, however, Pat and Tony would separate. Carm and Tony Jr. would remain with their father in Buffalo, while David and his soon-to-be-born brother, Edwin (Eddie; d. 1997), would make their way with their mother to California. Eddie Sacco was born in March 1960.

In California, Pat would get support from an uncle, Carl Watson (1901-1982), and live in Los Angeles. She would have a son Michael Lee Chase in 1961 and a daughter Linda Kay Chase in 1962. Pat would then marry Ercole "Ralph" Moffa (1923-2013) in 1967. By 1971, however, they were divorced and Pat would eventually settle near Palm Springs in the Morongo Valley area. 

In 1980, my father Carm and his brother Tony, who had been separated from their mother for 20 years, conducted a search for her. They eventually found her, along with their maternal grandmother Helen, who had since moved from Michigan to Los Angeles with their Uncle Jack. In 1981, when I (Sheree [Sacco] Van Vreede) was 7 years old, and my brother (Travis Sacco) was just a few months old, our family, along with Uncle Tony, flew to Palm Springs to meet "Grandma Pat" for the first time. It would become the first of several trips to southern California for our family over the next 7-8 years. At that time, Pat was still living in Morongo Valley and was working as a short order cook at one of the resorts in Palm Springs.

Later on, in the late 1980s, Pat would move to the East Coast for a time, living first with her son Tony in Richmond, Virginia, and then with us in western New York. She would eventually head back to southern California, however, before moving to Deming, New Mexico, in 1998. She would stay in Deming for the last 22 years of her life.

Pat was raised during the Depression to an already poor family. Her mother Helen had been divorced once by the time Pat was born and would later divorce Pat's adopted father Robert Hoyland (she never met her biological father). In both marriages, according to divorce records, Helen had been subject to spousal abuse. From 1940 on, Pat and her siblings would be raised by a single mother. 

Pat's life is not an easy one to share, and it comes with many gaps and misunderstandings in the telling (so please forgive any errors listed here). But there are some things I do know. She had 7 children (5 boys and 2 girls; 4 still living), a dozen or more grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren. As one of her grandkids, she was often a confusing figure to me, but she did give me and my brother a precious gift, our amazing father, Carm. And I know her son Eddie's children feel the same way about their loving dad (and one of the most handsome men I've ever met) who passed away too soon. 

Even out of hardship and despair, great blessings can still be found. 

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