In Memory

390 Trish Regan (Lavoie)

390 Trish Regan (Lavoie)

PATRICIA (TRISH) REGAN LAVOIE

SANFORD — Mrs. Patricia (Trish) Regan Lavoie, beloved wife of Michael Lavoie and one tough cookie with a wicked sense of humor, passed away well before her time on Wednesday, September 1, at age 53. She will be sorely missed by many.

"Trish is probably the most generous, most unassuming, kindest and most accepting human being I have ever known," said Jean St. Peter, one of her best friends and a colleague in the nursing profession. "She had a great sense of humor, a dry sense of humor, and she was so smart."

Patricia died of a massive heart attack late Wednesday, September 1st, at Maine Medical in Portland, the day before she was to undergo surgery to clear badly blocked arteries in her heart. Hers was a heart that reached out to colleagues, to her cherished dogs and to her husband of eight years, who was the light of her life and source of her deep concern as he valiantly battles cancer.

Patricia and Michael were kindred spirits who miraculously found each other and built a sturdy relationship on a foundation of commitment, trust, love and laughter that was a model to be envied.

She was a workaholic with bad habits — smoking and a poor diet of snacks paramount among them. She knew something was wrong, close friends said, but ignored her own health to focus on Michael's. She had been in and out of the hospital during the summer with gastrointestinal problems, and happily announced to a friend she was going home on Monday, only to have a doctor enter the room during the telephone conversation to tell her she wasn't.

She hated to be confined in the sort of health institution she flourished in throughout her career as a nurse and benefits administrator, but made the best of it by dialing up a cleaning service from her hospital bed to order a thorough cleaning of their Sanford home. She wanted to make a fresh start of it. Sadly, she never returned to that home.

She had worked for the past two years at Varney Crossing Nursing Care Center in North Berwick, where her infectious laugh became legendary, supervisor Ellen Selfridge said.

Selfridge happened to be at the front desk that day in March 2008 when Trish walked in to ask if they were hiring. They connected immediately, and Trish knew from Selfridge's ID tag they had the same skills and work experience — crunching the data that determines a patient's nursing home rate of reimbursement, complex and crucial work.

"It was just meant to be," Selfridge said. "She was my assistant. You could give her a task and she would just go off and fly with it. She would do it accurately. I learned from her."

"The whole situation with Michael devastated her," Selfridge added. "She worried about him so much."

She confided in close friends her deep concerns about living life without Michael. She had suffered the loss of an infant son, Sean, to SIDS, in 1985 and despaired of suffering another loss.

Now Michael is living life without her, and is devastated.

"She was my world," Michael Lavoie said. "I adored her and she adored me."

Michael said her life revolved around her job, him and their dogs, Sonny and Kehoe. Friends resoundingly agreed.

Patricia was born Southington, Connecticut on May 23, 1957, to John and Jean (Dunnigan) Regan. She was educated in schools in Connecticut and North Carolina, where her parents moved when she was a teen. She received her licensed practical nurse (LPN) degree from St. Francis Hospital and School of Nursing in Connecticut.

In addition to Michael, Patricia is survived by her siblings, Michael, Chris and Jane Regan-Regan; sisters-in-law, Lynne and Jaylene Regan; and nieces, Caitlin, Maggie, Nora, Natalya, Catie and Melissa. She is also survived by a Lavoie family she lovingly embraced, including father-in-law, Joseph, Lavoie siblings-in-law, Paul, Jane, Robert, John and Mark, and nieces and nephews, Kate, John, Mary, Laura, Tess, Joseph, Ted, Grace and Ben.

Visiting hours will be 3 to 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 10, at the SOLIMINE, LANDERGAN AND RICHARDSON FUNERAL HOME, 67 Ocean Street, Route 1A, Lynn, Massachusetts, followed by a service at 6 p.m.