Ellen Mulholland

Ellen Mulholland lived for her children, experienced life vicariously through them, spent most of her waking hours focused on her goal of giving them that which she herself had not enjoyed as a child. She endured much hardship and suffering to bring them up right, most of the time denying herself her own wants and needs in the process. Her main earthly pleasure was derived completely from giving her children the things that they needed or desired. After her husband, David Mulholland, passed away in 1995, she worked tirelessly as a single mother to move Rose, Matt and Tom from Kensington to suburban New Jersey, an accomplishment that she drew comfort from for the rest of her life for Ellen strove above all to give her children the opportunity for a good education. At home she constructed a cultured atmosphere, stocking the many shelves with classic novels and poetry and works of cinematic and musical genius and hanging reproductions of her favorite works of art and photography on the walls. She read extensively and seemed to be knowledgeable about almost any topic one could bring up and she bred in her children a desire to learn, a curiosity about the world, and an open-mindedness about religion, philosophy, and life in general. In her last years she painted prodigiously and particularly enjoyed recreating with the paint-brush photographs her children had taken, always presenting her works of art as gifts to her love, her life, her children. But it was after each in turn graduated from college and grew out of youth and into adulthood that she truly felt as though she had completed her greatest work of art and could be satisfied with the job she had done as a parent. It is no coincidence that Ellen passed away only after she could finally feel that she had completed what was her sole goal in life, nor that she did so only a matter of weeks after she dealt with the loss of her loving and loyal companion, Daisy, nor that she was able to let go only after spending one last Christmas holiday with her children, in which she got a final chance to tell her children one by one that she loved them dearly. Contented and with her heart full of warmth, she passed on peacefully in her sleep in the morning hours of December 27, 2010.

Relatives and friends are invited to remember and pay tribute to Ellen on Thursday January 6, 2011 between 6-7PM. A memorial service will follow at 7PM. In Lieu of flowers, memorial contributions would be appreciated.