A family-oriented woman who enjoyed baking
MELROSE — Barbara L. (Sizer) Graves passed away peacefully in the comfort of her longtime Melrose home while surrounded by her loving family on Monday, November 22, 2021. Three days shy of her 90th birthday, Monday was also the 69th wedding anniversary to her beloved husband, Cliff, who passed in August.
Barbara was born in Medford on November 25, 1931, the eldest of two children to the late Thomas Clifford and Gladys (Zackular) Sizer. She was raised in Melrose where she graduated from Melrose High School, Class of 1950. On November 22, 1952 Barbara married the love of her life, Cliff Graves, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Malden. Barbara and Cliff raised four children in Melrose and were blessed to share nearly 70 years of marriage.
Barbara dedicated herself to raising her three daughters and son who tested her patience and swelled her heart with love. In her free time she was an avid reader who escaped into mysteries and tales from pioneer days. She lovingly knitted and crocheted sweaters for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren even after her hands had been struck numb from the chemo she endured during a battle with cancer in her late 60s. Barbara enjoyed baking; her home made apple pie was a family favorite, her potato salad was not to be missed. Throughout the years, she enjoyed trips “up country” to Cliff’s ancestral family farmhouse in Northwood, N.H. where they contentedly passed stretches of time. Though the farmhouse was without modern plumbing, it was situated along a dirt road next to a pasture of grazing cows, and provided her heart the quietude and respite for which she longed.
Barbara was the beloved wife of the late Clifford H. Graves. Devoted mother of Susan C. Collins and her late husband, Jack, of Wilmington; Debbie Carli and her husband, Don, of Wilmington; Steven C. Graves and his wife, Lu-Ann, of Reading; and Judy L. Hood and her husband, Bill, of Newton, N.H. Dear sister of the late Thomas Sizer. Also survived by eight grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
Services to honor and remember Barbara will be private. Interment in Wyoming Cemetery, Melrose. Donations in Barbara’s memory to All Care VNA & Hospice, 210 Market St., Lynn, MA 01901. For online tribute visit RobinsonFuneralHome.com.
