‘Light of the family’: Remembering Eleanor Willett

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.”

The Fall River Fire department responded to the five-alarm fire around 9:50 p.m. on Sunday and found the building full of smoke with flames inside. The 50 responding firefighters got most of the occupants out and 35 people, including five firefighters were transported to local and area hospitals with varying conditions.

According to the Department of Fire Services, investigators identified an oxygen concentrator and numerous smoking materials in the room of origin.  Investigators believe the presence of medical oxygen in the area of origin and in other rooms throughout the structure played a significant role in the fire’s rapid spread.

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.

There will be a memorial mass for Willett at Saint Patrick’s Church on Wednesday, July 30.