Patricia A. Hosgood, 71, loving family matriarch

PATRICIA HOSGOOD was such a dedicated anti-abortion activist that she didn't mind occasionally being arrested for demonstrating a little too fervently at an abortion clinic.

She finally gave it up when a grandchild said, "Grandmom, please stop being thrown in jail."

But Patricia was a woman of strong opinions when it came to a cause close to her heart. If it meant handcuffs and being dragged away by cops, Patricia was willing to sacrifice a bit of comfort.

Her husband, Dennis, was stoic about it. On two of the three occasions she was arrested, he made the trek to the 8th District police station at Academy and Red Lion roads to pick her up. A friend got her the third time.

"She was always worried that I'd be mad at her," her husband said. "I wasn't."

Pat was never charged with a crime, and if she was behind bars it was only briefly. Cops were accustomed to answering complaints of rowdy demonstrations at the Northeast Women's Center, on Comly Road near Roosevelt Boulevard, and had to do their duty.

Patricia A. Hosgood, a woman fiercely devoted to her family, whose idea of the best of times was having her large brood assembled for a holiday meal, died Friday after a long struggle with cancer. She was 71 and was living in Southampton, Bucks County, but had lived most of her life in Philadelphia.

Pat's focus was always on others. Even when struggling with repeated surgeries and chemotherapy, her thoughts were always on how others were doing.

"On her deathbed, she was worrying about other people," said her daughter Barbara Zalot. "She was worrying about what to get people for Christmas. She was the kind of person who really would give you the shirt off her back."

Barbara's stepdaughter Morgan Zalot, a Daily News reporter who was always accepted as one of Pat's own kin, said that even when Mom-Mom was "suffering terribly from the cancer that eventually took her life, her first question whenever she saw me was always, without fail, 'How's work?' "

Morgan said she has fond memories of family gatherings at the home where Pat and her family formerly lived in Wissinoming.

"A big thing in the family was always getting together at that old Torresdale Avenue house and celebrating Christmas Eve, which included an excellent dinner home- cooked by Mom-Mom, and Mass at St. Bart's, her parish when she lived in Philadelphia," Morgan said.

Pat was an excellent cook, specializing in Italian fare, meatloaf, meatballs and potato salad. She enjoyed summer vacations at the Outer Banks in North Carolina.

Her early life was not easy. She was born in the New York City borough of Manhattan to Peter James Gray and Anastasia Hurley. But Catholic Charities removed her from the home when she was about 5 and she lived in foster homes before being taken in by Joseph and Josefina Mongelli, who raised her.

Pat graduated from West Catholic High School. She worked for a time at the former Sears warehouse on Roosevelt Boulevard, then took a job with Crown Loans, at 52nd and Chestnut streets.

She met Dennis Hosgood, an Army veteran, in 1962, and they were married on June 6, 1964. Dennis had been a member of the 82nd Airborne Division stationed in Germany. He was employed as a truck driver for the U.S. Postal Service.

"She was a funny person, a fine person," her husband said. "Everybody liked her. She helped everyone."

"She was incredible," Barbara Zalot said. "Everything was about family. She was our cheerleader, our coach. Holidays were so important as family get-togethers.

"She was a fighter. She had a strong will. Her spirit was unbelievable. She never once complained."

While living in Philadelphia, Pat was a member of St. Bartholomew's Church, on Jackson Street and Harbison Avenue, in Frankford. After moving to Southampton, she joined St. Bede the Venerable Church.

Besides her husband and daughter, she is survived by a son, Dennis Hosgood Jr.; another daughter, Tina; three sisters, Sister Joanne Mongelli; Geraldine Wenerd and Carol Barbera; and six other grandchildren. She was predeceased by a brother, Charles Jordan.

Services: Funeral Mass 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Bede the Venerable Church, 1071 Holland Road, Southampton. Friends may call at 6 p.m. Friday at the Hollen Funeral Home, 3160 Grant Ave.

Donations may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758517, Topeka, Kan. 66675.