Bridget Hannan

Bridget Hannan (nee Savage) went peacefully to the Lord on Wednesday, May 29, 2024.

Known as Breena from childhood, she was born June 4, 1932, in Deliga, Dromcollogher, County Limerick, Ireland, to Patrick and Ellen (nee Stokes) Savage. In October 1962 she met Oscar Hannan, the love of her life. He came to visit his sister at the maternity hospital where Bridget was her nurse. His sister urged him to ask Bridget on a date. The suggestion was considered a good one, and they married six weeks later. Oscar took Bridget back to America with him on the Holland America line on the Massdam liner. Bridget continued her nursing career at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx and Oscar his civil engineering career.

Three children—Aiden, Mary, and Brendan were born, and Oscar’s career required on-site work, so they lived in various places throughout New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Longing for a permanent return to Ireland, Bridget and Oscar moved back three different times, the last being 1979-1981 where they owned and managed a pub in Passage West, County Cork. They returned to Norwich, New York in 1981 and stayed there for the rest of their lives, happy to call it home. Bridget’s contribution to this community took many forms—nursing, including visiting nursing and hospice care, fundraising, and tirelessly working for those who needed her.

Her honesty and humor were legendary, and her stubborn refusal to just accept things made her an outspoken champion of what she considered to be the right thing to do.

She was predeceased by Oscar in August 2011. She is survived by sisters, Eileen and brother-in-law, Pascal, Lil and brother-in-law, Tim; sister-in-law, Teresa Hannan; and several nieces and nephews. She is mourned by many, but none more than her three children—Aiden, Mary, and Brendan, and her beloved granddaughter, Molly- a girl who brought tremendous joy to her and Oscar’s lives. Unique and wonderful, we shall not see her like again. Ni fheicfimid a leithéid arís.

We would like to thank the wonderful staff at Chenango Valley Home, Chase Memorial Nursing Home and the ICU unit at Chenango Memorial Hospital.

A Mass of Christian Burial for Bridget will be celebrated at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 8, 2024, at St. Paul's Church, 30 Pleasant Street, Norwich, where the Rev. Ralph A. Bove will officiate. Friends are invited to call at the Wilson Funeral Home, 68 South Broad Street, Norwich, on Saturday, June 8, from 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. A private burial will be held at St. Paul's Cemetery.

Funeral arrangements are entrusted with the Wilson Funeral Home.