Intrepid world traveler, lifelong Hingham resident, and a nurse at Quincy City Hospital for forty-two years, Judith A. Loring died at the Pat Roche Hospice Home in Hingham on November 3, 2024, at the age of 82 after a short illness.
Born on July 1, 1942, Ms. Loring was the daughter of the late Alfred V. Loring and the late Helen T. (Crean) Loring, both of Hingham, and the sister of the late Ann Marie (Loring) Desjardins of Hingham and Stratham, NH.
Ms. Loring came from noteworthy family on both sides. She was related to Job Loring, who served in the Hingham Militia in 1776, and she was the great niece of Antarctic explorer Tom Crean, who served aboard the ship HMS Endurance under the famous explorer Sir Edward Shackleton in 1914-1916. When Endurance became trapped in the Antarctic ice and then crushed, Crean accompanied Shackleton in a small open boat over 800 miles of frigid ocean to reach the settlement from which a rescue party could be launched to save the rest of Endurance’s marooned crew.
Following in the footsteps of her sister, who was a nurse in the US Air Force, Ms. Loring graduated from the Quincy City Hospital School of Nursing in 1963. She became a Registered Nurse and earned two certificates in advanced nursing knowledge and procedures to become an “RN-C.” Ms. Loring also was a 1960 graduate of Hingham High School.
“I became a nurse to help people,” Ms. Loring said. “It was rewarding to be able to help a patient get better or to comfort them and their family even when they did not improve,” she said. Ms. Loring began her career as a junior nurse and worked her way up to the position of Charge Nurse, where she was responsible for a forty-bed ward and its nurses.
Remarking on her nursing experiences, Ms. Loring said that “Doctors gave patients much more personal attention when I began nursing.” “By the time I retired, they spent much more time at their computers,” she said.
Ms. Loring made lifelong friends at the Nursing School, and they would gather regularly during the years after graduation.
When she was not nursing, Ms. Loring was traveling as far away as the Arctic Circle, the Egyptian pyramids (where she rode a camel), the Peoples Republic of China, Australia, New Zealand, the Greek islands, the Rhine River in Germany and Austria, England, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, and Central America. “Traveling was such a learning experience,” she said, “and I tried to take advantage of those trips whenever I could.”
Ms. Loring said that, despite visiting so many other countries, “my heart belonged to Ireland.” She made repeated trips to visit family in Anascaul near Dingle, County Kerry, and even took each of her three nieces on separate trips to Ireland so they could meet their Irish cousins and other relatives.
Ms. Loring, many times after working a full shift at Quincy City Hospital, also took her nieces and nephew to Red Sox games, the Music Circus in Cohasset, Nantasket Beach and Paragon Park, countless movies, and camping overnight in a tent in Plymouth. At Paragon Park, she led her merry band of nieces and nephew to ride every ride, even the most fearsome.
As her nieces and nephew grew up, “Aunt Judy” drove from Hingham to New Hampshire to celebrate every birthday.
Ms. Loring loved cats and dogs, and she was the only one in her family able to convince her Father to get a dog. One of those dogs, a Golden Retriever named “Sunshine,” became famous in Hingham when the local newspaper featured a front-page photo of her and Ms. Loring’s Mother, Helen Loring, sitting roadside and selling home-grown peaches.
In the United States, she voyaged to Alaska and Hawaii and made it a priority to attend as many as possible command and promotion ceremonies around the country for her eldest niece, an Air Force officer. She also did her best to be pier side when her only nephew docked his oceanographic research vessel at American ports.
A devout Catholic, Ms. Loring was an active parishioner first at St. Paul Church and later at Resurrection of the Lord Church, both in Hingham. She was baptized, received First Communion, and was confirmed at St. Paul.
At Resurrection, she belonged to a core group of 10-12 parishioners who cleaned the church every Sunday and prepared the altar, set aside the host and wine, and provided clean linen purificators to cover the chalice and lavabo towels for the priests to dry their hands.
Ms. Loring’s strong faith led her to undertake several pilgrimages and visits to Catholic holy sites and meaningful locations around the world. These included three trips to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a trip to Oberammergau, Germany to see the Passion Play that is performed once every ten years, trips to the shrine in Knock, Ireland and to visit the ruined monastery at Clonmacnoise in Ireland, and a trip to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Israel.
Reflecting on her long life in Hingham, Ms. Loring remembered that while growing up in her hometown “there was a lot of freedom because there were no worries about traffic then,” she said. “You also could be more of a free spirit, so I spent time climbing the maple trees along Mill Lane,” she said.
Ms. Loring is survived by her nephew and nieces: Thomas J. Desjardins (Erika) of Rancho Santa Fe, CA, Susan Y. Desjardins (Peter Lennon) of Exeter, NH, Nancy A. Desjardins of Saco, ME, and Cheryl M. Desjardins of Columbiaville, MI, her closest friends Terry Kenney of Braintree, with whom she attended the Nursing School, and Dorothy Sullivan of Hingham, whom she met at church, several grand-nieces and nephews and their families, and many cousins and friends.
A Liturgy of Christian Burial and Celebration of Life will be held at Resurrection of the Lord Church, 1057 Main Street Hingham, on Friday, November 8, 2024, at 10 AM. Burial will follow in the family plot in High Street Cemetery, 19 High Street, Hingham. Visiting hours will be held on Thursday, November 7, 2024, from 2-4 PM at the Downing Cottage Funeral Chapel, 21 Pond Street, Hingham.
Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to Resurrection of the Lord Church or to one’s own favorite charity.