Mrs. Helen Gertrude Harris

Helen Gertrude (Surette) Harris, age 89, passed away in her Dedham, Massachusetts home on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. Born in East Boston, Massachusetts on December 19, 1928, she was the daughter of the late Edgar A. and Gertrude O. (Amiro) Surette. Helen was raised in Lower East Pubnico, Nova Scotia, Canada, where she received her education in the local one room school house. At the age of 17, she returned to the United States, settling in East Boston, with her aunt, and finding work as a Nurse's Aid in the Boston area. Helen met her soon to be husband, John T. Harris, Jr., on a blind date and they were married on September 6, 1952 in the Mission Church in Roxbury. They made their home together in Jamaica Plain, where Helen took on the role of a homemaker, raising and caring for her five children. As a devout Catholic, Helen took an active role in Saint Andrew's Church, where she attended Sunday Mass with her family. Once her children had grown, Helen began working alongside her husband, John, when he purchased the Carroll Window Shade Company in Brookline. After John's passing, Helen settled into her new home in Walpole, Massachusetts in 1994, where she was quickly welcomed into the Parish of Blessed Sacrament, where she was a long-time member of the morning prayer group. In addition, Helen was an active member of the Walpole Senior Center. Most of all, Helen was proud of her family. She loved being a wife to her husband and a mother to her children, always knowing how blessed she was to be able to care for them. Helen was delighted at the birth of her grandchildren and great grandchildren and loved knowing her family's heritage was continuing on. Beloved wife of the late John T. Harris, Jr. Loving mother of Mary Ellen Schumann and her husband William of Marblehead, Michael T. Harris and his wife Linda of Quincy, John T. Harris, III of Jamaica Plain, Karen A. MacNeill and her husband Michael of Millis, and Susan G. MacDonald and her husband Laurence of Newport, Rhode Island. Cherished grandmother of Joanna, Jenna, Joshua, Lamarr, Daniel, Timothy, Patrick, Christopher, KerriAnn, Molly, Lauren, and Andrew, and great grandmother of Miles, Mirabel, Elliott, Kamdyn, James, Brooks, Chase, Bryce, and Lilliana. Sister of Yvonne Eldridge and her husband Douglas of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Relatives and friends are kindly invited to Helen's visitation on Friday, November 9, 2018 from 11 to 11:45 AM in the James H. Delaney & Son Funeral Home, 48 Common Street, Walpole. A Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 12:00 Noon in Blessed Sacrament Church, 10 Diamond Street, Walpole. Interment will be in Saint Joseph's Cemetery in West Roxbury. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The Walpole Council on Aging, 135 School Street, Walpole, MA 02081.