With deep sadness, we announce that Pat Chargin died on March 1, after complications from a fall. She was 91.

She will be buried next to her beloved husband, James E. Chargin, M.D., under a dogwood tree, in St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery in Grass Valley.

A Vigil will be held for Pat at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26, at Hooper & Weaver Mortuary in Nevada City. Her funeral Mass will be at noon on Thursday, March 27, at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, followed by a luncheon reception at the adjacent parish hall.

Patricia Josephine Murphy was born in San Francisco, California, in 1934, the second of three daughters to Phyllis Keeley Murphy and Robert Emmit Murphy.

After the family moved to San Jose, Patty attended St. Leo’s Elementary School and Notre Dame High School. Patty loved learning and was a consistent “A” student.

During this time, Patty’s dear friend Mary Chargin introduced her brother Jim Chargin to Patty; Patty and Jim formed an immediate bond and were soon nearly inseparable.

After high school, Patty enrolled in a nursing program at O’Connor Hospital and graduated as a Registered Nurse. In 1955, Jim and Pat married and moved to Chicago, where Jim finished medical school.

Now a family of six, the Chargins settled in Grass Valley in 1963 and joined St. Patrick’s Catholic Parish. Jim and Pat soon developed a circle of very close friends within and beyond the Parish, friends who supported each other through the joys and challenges of raising families, pursuing careers, and navigating marriages, faith, politics, and life in general. From big dinners with family to small campouts at Scotts Flat and Wild Plum, from winter ski trips to summers at the beach in Santa Cruz, from Easter picnics to backyard barbeques and pool parties, being with family and friends was always joyous nourishment to Pat’s heart and soul.

Pat fulfilled her lifelong vocation of caring for others in innumerable practical ways. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Sac State in 1989. She worked for years for the county Public Health Department and in her husband’s medical office. Pat was one of the original advocates for founding a hospice organization in the Grass Valley area. Because of her advocacy in Friends of Hospice, fundraising got off to a marvelous start and soon hospice clients began receiving the services they needed. She was also active for many years and in many roles at Grass Valley’s Hospitality House and Interfaith Food Ministry.

For Pat, the beauty of the natural world was a constant connection to Divine Grace and Majesty. She would often pause in wonder and delight at the sight of a pristine vista, a flower, a bird in flight, the expanse of the ocean. Beauty of all kinds – whether in poetry, music, art, or nature – inspired her. She found beauty in the simplest things and in every person she met, and that always lifted her heart in gratitude to God.

Pat was a great adventurer. She traveled to China in the 1980s, walked the Milford Track in New Zealand, traveled in Europe and Hawaii, and skied avidly across the US West for years.

We will profoundly miss Pat and her vast love, faith, wit, and joy.

She is survived by her sister Jeannie Birmingham and family; by her children and their families: Jim, Sherry, and Brenna; Katherine and Maurice; Pete, Jenn, William, and Emily; David, Susan, Patrick, and Maria; and by numerous cherished in-laws, nieces, and nephews on both the Murphy and Chargin sides of the family.