CHICOPEE - Irene M. “Grandma” (Fredette) Beaudoin, 103, a longtime resident of the Fairhaven Apartments at 400 Britton Street in the Fairview section of Chicopee, was Called Safely Home on Wednesday, October 17, 2012. She passed into Eternal Life at Holyoke Health Care Center surrounded by the care and comfort of her loving family and her wonderful caregivers. She was born in Holyoke on January 6, 1909, the youngest of 11 children, to the late Julien and Josephine (Samson) Fredette. She was raised in Holyoke and lived there for many years. After her marriage in 1934, Irene and her husband, Armand, moved to the Willimansett Heights section of Chicopee, where they lived until his death in 1960. In 1975, she moved to the Fairhaven Apartments. Irene left school at an early age to help support her family by working at the factories in Holyoke. She was an amazing woman who sewed her children’s clothes and knitted beautiful sweaters, hats, scarves, mittens and slippers that her family called “sochettes”. She was a stay at home mom until her youngest was 13 and then worked at the former Van Valkenburg Company in Willimansett before retiring around 1969. She was a founding member of the Willimansett Heights Improvement League and was a longtime volunteer for their bingo. Irene was a quiet woman who adored her family and showered them with her love and affection which was returned to her a thousand fold. Active in her faith, she was a communicant of the former Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Willimansett and currently a communicant of Saint Anne Church in Fairview. She was predeceased by her beloved husband, Armand G. Beaudoin, who was Called Home on March 29, 1960. Besides her parents, husband and ten siblings, she was also predeceased by her loving daughter, Jacqueline Beaudoin; and her loving son, Arthur L. Beaudoin. She leaves her loving children, Elaine E. Plante and her husband, Gerard “Ray”, of Chicopee, Bernice J. McNiff and her husband, Thomas, and Kenneth A. Beaudoin and his wife, Dorothy, all of South Hadley; her loving daughter-in-law, Barbara Beaudoin, of North Easton, MA; her 12 cherished grandchildren; her 19 cherished great-grandchildren; and her many dear nephews and nieces. Her funeral will be held on Monday morning, October 22, 2012 beginning at the St. Pierre – Phaneuf Fairview Chapels, (413-533-3307), 506 Britton Street, Chicopee, MA 01020, (funeral home will open at 8:30 a.m.), followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 10 a.m. in Sainte Anne Church, 30 College Street, Chicopee, MA 01020. Her burial will follow the Mass at Notre Dame Cemetery, 63 Lyman Street, South Hadley, MA 01075. Her family will receive friends at the funeral home on Sunday, October 21, 2012 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The parking lot is located in the rear of the funeral home. Memorial donations may be made in her memory to the Holyoke Health Care Center, 282 Cabot Street, Holyoke, MA 01040.