Amelia (McCabe) Lawson, 99, of Medford and Melrose, passed away peacefully, due to complications from dementia, on June 6, 2026.

Born in Motherwell, Scotland, to Samuel and Jane (Donnelly) McCabe. Amelia was the eighth of their ten children. During the Great Depression, her father lost his business and the family moved to Council Housing in Glasgow.

As a young girl, Amelia was a tomboy and loved telling stories about her adventures in the bluebell woods near her home—adventures she fondly retold to her children. As a young teen, she and her family lived through the German bombing of the Clydebank shipyards in Glasgow during the Blitz.

At 14, Amelia left school to apprentice as an engineer’s tracer at the Albion Motor Works. In her late teens, Amelia joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) and served the remainder of WWII in military hospitals near Edinburgh, where she took care of young men wounded in battle. She had fond memories of “the boys” as she called them. There were many times that she held their hands to comfort them or helped them write letters home to their families.

In the early post-war years, Amelia was stationed at HMS Bruce, a Royal Boys Training Base in Crail, Fife, Scotland. It was there, she met her husband, Basil Lawson, a Royal Navy Instructor Lieutenant. Basil and Amelia were married in 1949.

Ameila was the loving mother of six children, born in three countries: two in England, one in Canada and three in the United States. Two of her children, her daughter, Annette, and her son, William, left this earth before her.

Amelia moved with her family to Canada in 1955, then to the United States in 1956. The family lived in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and California. While in Massachusetts, they resided in Andover. In California, she and her family lived in Sunnyvale, Goleta, and Oceanside.

Amelia returned to school in her fifties, earning her GED and Licensed Vocational Nursing qualification before her marriage of over 30 years ended in divorce. She graduated from Palomar College and obtained her Registered Nurse license. Amelia worked as an emergency room and long-term care nurse in California before moving to Melrose, Massachusetts, where she served as an administrator for a visiting nurse association.

After her retirement, she moved into an apartment at the McCarthy House in Melrose. At 90, due to dementia, she entered Regal Care at Courtyard in Medford, where she was cared for by a loving staff for her last ten years.

Amelia is survived by: her late son William’s wife, Barbara Lawson, of Portland, Oregon; her daughter Susan Cann and her husband George of Melrose; her daughter Pamela Abela and her husband Manny, of Beaverton, Oregon; her daughter, Christine Anderson and her husband Steve, of Escondido, California, and her son, John Andrew Lawson, of Gloucester. She is also survived by nieces and nephews in Scotland, England, and Ireland.

Amelia was the proud grandmother of eight: Jennifer O’Brien, of Melrose; Jacoba “Cobi” Lawson and her husband Adam Rodriguez, of Portland, Oregon; Christopher Lawson of Portland, Oregon; and Samuel Anderson and his wife Nicole, Sally Wine and her husband Kenny, James Anderson, Zachary Anderson and his wife Ashley, and Amelia Defrain and her husband Max, all of Escondido, California.

Amelia was blessed with eight great-grandchildren: Rowan, Poppy, Seth, Elicia, Toby, Oliver, Landon, and Gweneth, all of Escondido, California.

She was also blessed with her step-grand family, Brian Cann and his wife Jean, and their children Ian, Charlotte, and Noah Cann, all of Hopkinton.

A celebration of Amelia’s life will be held on August 29 (her 100th birthday), at the Gately Funeral Home, 79 West Foster Street, Melrose, MA 02176. Visitation will begin at 10:00 am. The celebration service will begin at 11:30 am. As was her wish, Amelia’s ashes will be interred with her mother and her daughter, Annette, in Dumbarton, Scotland.

We will miss her sweet smile, and her spirit will be with us every time we have a cup of tea in the afternoon. “Ta” mum, until we meet again.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to: the Resident Council Fund, Attention: Cris Doyle, Regal Care at Courtyard, 200 Governors Road, Medford, MA 02156.