Pauline Hayward

Pauline Hayward

Whitinsville, MA - Our beloved Mom, Pauline Hayward, died peacefully in her sleep on Friday, February 6, 2026. Deeply loved by her family and friends, she left an amazing legacy of love, joy, and faith to all who knew her.

Pauline Esther Osgood was born in Newport, New Hampshire on February 28th, 1939, to Russell Ward Osgood and Irene (Laro) Osgood. She attended her beloved Grantham Village School as a young girl and graduated from Towle High School in Newport in 1957.

Mom loved growing up in the 1950's, frequenting the local penny candy shop, dancing to Elvis records with her friends, attending sock hops and participating in several school clubs. She was the catcher on her school's softball team and played guard for the basketball team, which was remarkable since she was barely five foot three.

In high school she met her future husband, Lawrence Hayward from Claremont, New Hampshire. They married in 1959 and had five children together. In the early sixties they owned a small restaurant in New London, New Hampshire. At that time, Mom was known for her spectacular desserts, namely her chocolate eclairs, which often sold out before noon.

Later, our family moved to nearby Grantham where Mom spent her days sewing beautiful clothes for her kids, maintaining a large garden, hauling water from a nearby spring when the pipes froze, (she made us kids help), and cooking gourmet meals for her family with homemade desserts every night. Her lemon meringue pie may have been four inches high, but who's counting?

Mom taught us kids a strong work ethic. She managed our days by keeping a chore chart and lists (she was the Queen of Lists). She settled our disputes with straws from a broom and we kids learned quickly there was no arguing the short straw.

Mom kept the five of us in books, crafts, crayons, Play-Doh, drawing paper, marbles, jacks and matchbox cars. She taught us how to earn money and save some for a rainy day. She stuffed Vicks up our noses when we got sick and put hot water bottles at the foot of our beds on cold nights. She sang countless lullabies. Being stay-at-home mom was the role she treasured the most.

In 1971, our father moved our family to Whitinsville, Massachusetts and not long afterward and through a series of unfortunate events, Mom found herself raising us kids alone. She made more lists, put us kids in charge of certain tasks to help keep our home afloat and took a job as a breakfast waitress at the Sheraton Hotel in Worcester. Within a year, she became a hostess in the hotel's fancy dining room, and she was decked out in beautiful gowns she borrowed or made. She decided working nights wasn't good for family life, so she began working at Pleasant Valley Country Club in nearby Sutton.

In the late seventies, Mom re-discovered the faith in God she had as a child and consequently imparted that faith to each of her children. She began attending bible studies and soon was teaching them herself. She formed deep and lasting friendships with countless people, who loved and helped her through the many challenges she had at the time, and she, in turn, began loving and serving others.

Mom went back to school to obtain the skills she needed to further her job prospects. Eventually she was hired as an executive secretary at Whitin Machine Works and then later went to work as an administrative assistant for Wiersma Insurance.

Finally, in her early 50's she realized a lifelong dream by receiving a degree in Education from Gordon College and she became a fourth-grade teacher at MetroWest Christian Academy in Ashland. Years later she became a librarian at Our Lady of the Valley school in Uxbridge before ending her career at the age of 77 as assistant to the headmaster at Holy Name High School in Worcester.

Amid these accomplishments, Mom managed to take belly dancing lessons with a dear friend, start her own Color Me Beautiful business where she used her skills to minister to incarcerated women, take a trip to Russia to serve in an orphanage (a huge accomplishment given the fear she had of that country post WWII). She took a calligraphy class and sold her beautiful creations at many local craft fairs. By the time the twentieth century was ending, Mom had become the proud grandmother of nine grandsons and nine granddaughters and invested personal time with each one.

Mom was not without her trials. She endured breast cancer as a young woman, and later rheumatoid arthritis, the latter bringing an enormous amount of suffering into her life that continued until her death. She found relief in swimming and obtained membership at the Whitin Gym where she exercised in the pool several mornings a week before going to work. She loved to walk and could often be found strolling the grounds of her final home on Chestnut Street in Whitinsville.

After Mom retired in 2016, she spent her days with her beloved books, her friend groups, attending bible studies, writing devotionals, making meals for folks and encouraging her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In 2016, she traveled to Scotland and fulfilled another dream of walking the land of her ancestors. Lastly, at the age of 80, she wrote her memoir, "Between the Lines". Besides her family, it was one of her proudest accomplishments.