Loving grandmother, devout catholic and longtime Warehamite Eleanor Willett touched many lives before a fire at a Fall River assisted living facility claimed her life.

Willett, 86, lived in Wareham for 45 years and served as the secretary of the board of health for 15. Willett was one of 10 victims in a fire at the Gabriel House Assisted Living Residence in Fall River Sunday, July 13.

“She was just the light and the rock of the whole family,” Willett’s granddaughter Holly Mallowes of Dartmouth said. “She outlived two husbands, she had five children and 14 grandchildren.”

Willett grew up in the Boston area and spent much of her working life as a secretary, most recently for the board of health until her retirement in 1998. Mallowes said Willett chose to raise a family instead of attending college but did end up going back to better her career as a secretary.

“She was so incredibly smart,” Mallowes said.

Up until recently, Willett attended church at Saint Patrick’s and Mallowes described her as a "devout Catholic.”

Mallowes lived with her grandmother in Wareham for many years and remembers looking up to her and wanting to make her proud.

“She would take in family whenever needed and give them the shirt off her back,” Mallowes said. “She was known for her smile, her class, her elegance, and her big loving kind heart.”

Mallowes added despite not coming from money, Willett embodied class and elegance in her looks.

“She always had her hair done and her face was beautiful and she was always dressed to the nines,” Mallowes said. “I just remember seeing her and thinking ‘wow my grandmother is a beautiful classy woman’ and it set a good example for me.”

Now a mother herself, Mallowes said she tries to make her grandmother proud by helping others as she would have done.

“It was imprinted on me to be a mother and the matriarch of the family and I do find myself in that position now as I’m helping organize and do what I can to take the burden off my mother and her two brothers,” she said.