Mary Patience

Mary Ellen Rahn Patience, 76, of Hobbs, New Mexico, passed on to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on September 16, 2022, in Ft. Worth, TX after a long series of illnesses.

Mary Ellen Rahn married Matthew Patience, originally from Galway, New York on September 11, 1982, at the Pentecostal Church in Ottawa, Illinois. She attended St. Columba Grade School and graduated from Marquette High School where she was a proud member of Marquette Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps. She also participated in the high school musicals. She loved the nursing field, working many years at the Ottawa Medical Center, and in nursing home care and later hospice care. Because of her love of children, she was always in ministries for children, was a Christian youth leader, Sunday School teacher, Boy Scout leader, and community teen center volunteer.

Mary Ellen will be remembered by the many whose lives she touched. Devoted to her family, her husband of over 40 years and her sons never lacked for the smiles, loving attention, and prayers regardless of life’s circumstances.

Mary Ellen is survived by her husband, Matthew, and sons Luke Edwin Patience of Denver, CO and Jonathan Matthew Patience of Willis, TX. Also surviving are siblings Jan Foster, Robert (Pam) Godwin, and Karen Matos, all of Ottawa; Jean (Greg) Moran of Streator; Jack (Cheryl) Seroka of LaSalle: Mary Louise (Robert) Sackett of Killeen, TX; and many nieces, nephews, and cousins whom she dearly loved.

She was preceded in death by three children who did not get a chance to live outside of the womb but whom she loved very much. She was also preceded by her mother, Amelia Medina Rahn; grandparents who raised her, Grace, and Leslie Dillon: brother Ray Dean Godwin.