Her father was the Kennedy family doctor in Boston and influenced her academic pursuits. “She just had this vigorous love for life, and that carried through her whole life.”īorn and raised in Jamaica Plain, Peg was one of nine children of Dr. “She lived life with such gratitude and open arms it was infectious,” said her son, Jim Laughlin. The beloved matriarch of a large Irish clan, Peg was a mother, grandmother, poet, breast cancer survivor, and nature lover. She had been living at a Needham rehabilitation center for about a month while recuperating after a brief hospitalization. Margaret (Heffernan) Laughlin died April 11, at age 91, of complications from the novel coronavirus. Every morning starting out I would thank God for my good health and ask His help to get me through these difficult cases. My patients always gave me more than I could ever give to them. “It was through that work I truly found myself by helping others. “I cannot imagine my life without doing Physical Therapy!” Peg wrote in a journal decades later as she reflected on her life. It was a transformative experience, by her own account.

She spent about four months working at a field hospital, treating children who struggled to breathe and couldn’t move their limbs. Traveling by herself, she boarded a train in Boston for Tulsa. But Peg, the daughter of a prominent Boston doctor, didn’t hesitate when she heard Oklahoma was in dire need of health care workers. There was no cure for the virus, no vaccine people were quarantined in their homes in a desperate effort to protect their families. Margaret “Peg” Laughlin had just graduated college in 1949 and was looking for her first job as a physical therapist during a polio epidemic that was sweeping across the country, affecting children especially hard. Reported in the Boston Globe on April 29, 2020 Margaret Laughlin, 91: A poetic life devoted to healing In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to VNA Care Network via. Relatives and friends will gather for a memorial service at a date yet to be determined. She was the beloved sister of Roy Heffernan (deceased) of Jamaica Plain Joan (Heffernan) Jacobs (deceased) of Needham Sheila (Heffernan) Clark of Needham Michael Heffernan of Needham (John) Timothy Heffernan (deceased) of Bow, NH David Heffernan (deceased) of Sun City Center, FL Thomas Heffernan of Ridgeway, CO and James Heffernan of Hanover, NH. She is survived by their five children and in-laws: Robert & Linda (Voce) Laughlin of Boxford Marion (Laughlin) Sowyrda of Walpole Thomas Laughlin of Framingham James Laughlin and Jane Di Cristina of Sherborn and John Laughlin of New Market, NH. Peg was predeceased by her husband of 32 years, Robert. Her shining virtues of grace, patience, humility, quiet strength, gratitude and love will remain enduring gifts and guides to all who knew and loved her. Her poems memorializing patients who died soothed many grieving families.Īfter the death of her husband and her retirement, she found great joys in birdwatching, traveling widely with friends, organizing college reunions, taking classes, writing poetry, teaching Sunday school, visiting frequently her children and beloved grandchildren, and deepening her lifelong faith. She approached her home healthcare work through the Visiting Nurse Association as a kind of religious vocation, offering skillful physical therapy, humane, hands-on support, and warm cheerfulness to thousands of recuperating, homebound, and bedridden patients. After marrying in 1956, raising five children, and surviving breast cancer, she returned to the career she loved for two more decades. At the height of the polio epidemics of the 1950s, she treated hundreds of stricken and paralyzed children and young adults. in 1949, launching a lengthy career as a physical therapist. She graduated from Bouvé-Boston School of Physical Education with a B.S. In high school she enjoyed cheerleading, dancing to Big Bands at the Totem Pole Ballroom, and supporting troops in the Second World War through numerous drives and activities. She grew up in a loving, active family, and was an enthusiastic skier, tennis player, and swimmer. Her devout Catholic faith was a constant source of nourishment through sunshine and shadows, and she combined it with a mystic’s direct sense of wonder and oneness, seeing divine handiwork in all the natural world and in each person she looked upon. Raised in Jamaica Plain, Peg was one of nine children of the late Dr. She passed away of complications from COVID-19 on Saturday, April 11. LAUGHLIN, Margaret (Heffernan) 91, formerly of Medfield, whose steadfast, open-hearted love, encouragement, and service were for her large extended family, many friends, and countless patients as reliable as the rising sun.

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