WELL-KNOWN… Patricia Rice
THE Lisnaskea area is this week coming to terms with the sudden unrelated deaths of two relatively young women, last week-end and this week.
A PSNI spokesman confirmed that officers attended the report of a sudden death of a woman, aged in her 50s, in the Lisnaskea area on the evening of Saturday 25 January.
“The death is not being treated as suspicious”, he added.
Continuing, he said Police were in attendance at the report of a sudden death of a woman, aged in her 40s, in the Maguiresbridge area on the morning of Monday 27 January.
“This is currently being treated as unexplained, and enquiries are continuing to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the death”.
The deceased are Phyllis Beattie (53), a mother of two, who lived in Carrowshee Park, Lisnaskea, and Patricia Rice (47), also a mother of two, who lived in Bridge Park, Maguiresbridge.
Phyllis Beattie was the mother of Laura and Dean. Her son died tragically 15 years ago as a result of a fall from a balcony whilst on holiday in Spain. He was in his late teens.
She was found dead at her home in Carrowshee Park, Lisnaskea on Saturday afternoon.
Then, on Monday afternoon, the body of Patricia Rice was found at her home in Bridge Park, Maguiresbridge. She was a reflexologist who worked from home.
She was the mother of two, Michaela (Australia) and Darryl, a student in England.
The parish priest of Lisnaskea, Canon Joseph Mullin, through the Herald, paid tribute to both deceased and their families.
Ms Beattie was a native of Clones and, in his homily at her funeral Mass in the Sacred Heart Church, Clones yesterday (Tuesday), Canon Mullin recalled the impact of her son’s tragic death.
“Part of her died with Dean”, he told mourners, “and the other part struggled with her day to day living. We all know something of that struggle, but God never forgets the bereft.
“It all tells us of the brevity and the fragility of life. We need each other and our Christian belief tells is that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without Our Father knowing it.”
As chairman of the board of governors of the local (Lisnaskea) St Ronan’s Primary School and Nursery, Canon Mullin knew the second deceased, Patricia Rice.
“She was a classroom assistant there when it opened 12 years ago. She was a lovely wee lassie. She had a very good job, but she wanted to do holistic healing and she decided to become a reflexologist.”
Locally, in Maguiresbridge, people, including Patricia’s neighbours, spoke about admiringly.
One summed up the feelings of the community: “She was a lovely wee lady. She worked very hard at her job. It seems that two clients called at her home on Monday and her door was closed.
“That was out of character for Patricia, not being there to let them in, so her second client called the police. That’s how she was found.”
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