SUFFIELD: Patricia Anne (Bagge) Harmon, 74, of Suffield and Essex, CT, passed away in a circle of family on Friday, October 1, 2021. She was born on December 29, 1946 in Springfield MA, the daughter of the late Alfred and Mary (Welch) Bagge.
A lover of the water since childhood, she found a rowboat near Breckwood Lake in Springfield and wasted no time sinking it to the bottom. As a teenager, she strolled down a Hyannis dock with her father, peered inside a Kennedy yacht, and caught the boating bug. She graduated from Cathedral High School and Kay Harvey Hairdressing Academy, starting her own hairdressing studio in her home on Sawmill Road, Springfield, in the late 1960s. Pat moved her family to Longmeadow and founded Showcase Realty, Inc., in 1977, enjoying a 50-year career as a real estate broker. She loved going to work every day. After moving to Westfield in the mid-80s, she sold many lots and homes in burgeoning subdivisions and fulfilled her dream, starting with a 14-foot powerboat on the Connecticut River and eventually moving to a motoryacht of her own in Essex, “Last Call,” to cruise the New England shoreline with first mate and husband, Bill.
Her favorite destination was Block Island, Rhode Island. She pulled into New Harbor every July with Bill at her side, children and grandchildren in tow, and entertained her beloved mother and aunt there. Later, she enjoyed trips via cruise ship and plane to the Caribbean and Europe. She walked “absolutely gorgeous” beaches in Aruba, bellied up to an ice bar in Stockholm with friends, and reminisced on the grassy fields of her ancestors during a stay in her late grandfather’s farmhouse on Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula. Pat became an author in her fifties, publishing a novella titled The Long Way Home based on her parents’ grand Tudor-style house in Springfield’s Ridgewood Historic District and the family’s best Christmas ever there. She found comfort and joy in family traditions, and loved sharing them with a personal invite or through her writing. “We all have such a great time together,” she said. “I feel everyone should be part of the fun.” She was a freelance writer of business, slice-of-life, and family-themed articles for publications such as The Westfield News and Birds and Blooms and Soundings Magazines. “I find a great deal of meaning in some of the simplest everyday occurrences,” she said. She wrote on her boat with poetic detail about the sea shining with “the glint of a thousand diamonds” and in a cozy country cottage built by Bill in the woods behind their Southwick home.
Lovingly known by family and friends as “Doll,” she will be remembered for her larger-than-life smile that echoed her father’s and for being more excited than most by the little things. She was a disco queen and the life of the party who had to know the story of everyone in the room. Her siblings describe her as the ring-leader of childhood mischief. Her kids opened their lunches to find sunny notes from Mom. Her grandkids never got a visit from “Grammy” without their favorite candy. They all heard constant warnings about crossing the street and walking in dark parking lots. She told her kids, “Don’t worry about me. I did what I wanted and I had fun.”
She was predeceased by her parents and son-in-law Bernard LeDuc, and is survived by her husband Bill, brother William and sister-in-law Joanie, Carl and sister-in-law Debbie, sister Joanne Tinervia, and brother Robert and sister-in-law Paula; ex-husband John Parker; daughters Brenda LeDuc, Karen Parker and her fiancée Amy Puebla, son John Parker and his girlfriend Alicia Taylor, daughter Heidi Colonna and her husband, Al; stepdaughter Julie Marino and her husband Gary and stepdaughter Laurie Harmon and her husband Andrew Koontz; and her grandchildren, Logan and Savannah LeDuc, Abby, Alaina, John, and Axel Parker, Kevin O’Brien and Alfred Colonna, and Desmond Marino.
Calling hours for Pat will be held on Wednesday, October 6 from 4-7 PM at Southwick Forastiere Funeral Home, 624 College Highway, Southwick, MA. A funeral service will be on Thursday, October 7 at the funeral home at 10:00 AM. Burial will follow in Longmeadow Cemetery, Longmeadow. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude’s Place, Memphis, TN 38105. For more information, please visit www.forastiere.com
