Robert A. Letendre

WELLFLEET — Robert A. Letendre, of Wellfleet, died of a sudden illness late Monday night, Feb. 16, 2010. You can't say it was really "sudden" though. Bob was 87.

He was an old man. As he said to the doctors and nurses an hour before passing, "Hey, I've lived a long life." He was comfortable in his hospital bed, said goodbye to his visiting relatives, watched his last episode of "Jeopardy," shut the TV off, closed his eyes, and passed away.

If we had some lead time, we might have been able to assemble his entire family by his bedside but we certainly could not have fit in the hospital room. Besides his wife Barbara Piquette, whom he was married to for 61 years, there would have been his three sisters, Rita Conte, Audrey Guertin and Terry Serra, with their enormous extended families from the West Springfield area (missing only his sisters Sis and Irene, both of whom passed a few years ago); his son Roland (wife Lucia) of Mattapoisett/Wellfleet; his daughters Diane Teta (husband Paul) of Longmeadow, Carrie Rushby of Wellfleet, Robin Manning (husband Jim) of Falmouth, and Cindy Cilfone (husband Mark) of Falmouth; his 13 grandchildren along with their miscellaneous spouses, girlfriends and boyfriends; and, of course, his three great-grandchildren.

Bob worked hard to make this family happen. After he served in World War II with time in Egypt and India, he came home to build houses in the West Springfield area. Many weekends during the summer he would take his family to the seaside in Wellfleet.

He couldn't imagine paying $13,000 for the little homes overlooking the bay so he bought a piece of land and built his own home using scrap wood left over from various jobs, and a hand saw.

While he was a serious, hard-working man in his younger years, he certainly lightened up in his last few decades. One of his last scrabble words, the day before he died, was "duckpie." His wife Barbara challenged him from the other side of the room, "I've never heard of duck pie and, besides, that would be two words." Bob argued, "Well, you've heard of chickenpie and turkeypie, haven't you? Why couldn't there be a duckpie?" He wasn't arguing though. You could tell that he was laughing underneath. He laughed a lot lately. He made us laugh.

Visiting hours are from 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, at Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, 475 Main St., Falmouth Center, followed by a 1 p.m. funeral Mass next door at St. Patrick's Church. Contact his son, Roland, at 508-942-6103 for further information.

In lieu of flowers, visit www.nationalMSsociety.org and click "donate."

For online guest book and directions, please visit www.ccgfuneralhome.com.