GRAY – Pamela Dyer was an enthusiastic seamstress.
At Halloween, she would create her children’s costumes, transforming the fabric into little devils, tigers and Indian maidens.
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In later years she fashioned colorful blankets for her two granddaughters.
Mrs. Dyer, who died Thursday at age 60, also filled her house with cross-stitching creations.
She also relished her role as a doting grandmother.
She was known to her granddaughters as “Grammie,” said her daughter Jennifer Thibodeau of Windham.
She would let the her oldest, a 6-year-old, take over her kitchen, making splendid inedible messes.
“They would make concoctions of eggs and crackers and ketchup in bowls,” said her daughter.
She met her husband at Portland High School. They were in the same year and some of the same classes and ended up dating, said her husband, David.
After their marriage in 1972, Mrs. Dyer went to Westbrook College, graduating with an associate degree. She enjoyed her work as a project manager at Portland Housing Authority working with people who lived at Sagamore Village, where she grew up, and later at Kennedy Park.
“She cared so much about that community,” said her daughter.
Her husband described her as an avid reader. She would race through mysteries, loved the Harry Potter series and filled their home with books.
“We have a lot of books around,” he said.
She was an extrovert who loved to be around other people, said her family. She loved to laugh and enjoyed a good joke.
“She had a great sense of humor,” said her son Jonathan Dyer of Livermore Falls.
Even in her prolonged fight with diabetes, she remained involved in scouting’s Pine Tree Council and the Sabbath Day Lake Grange, said her family.
“She loved company and gave a lot of her time,” said her son.
Her family said her giving nature was almost a fault,
“Sometimes she wouldn’t take care of herself because she worried about other people’s needs first,” said her daughter.
When Mrs. Dyer’s aunt died a while ago, a granddaughter, Mercedes, who was close to the aunt, had a hard time coming to terms with the death, said Jennifer Thibodeau.
So Mrs. Dyer told her granddaughter that when people passed away they became a star in the sky watching over their family below.
“That is what we tell her now about” Grammie, said her daughter.
Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at:
bquimby@pressherald.com
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