Rita Marie Bourgeois Bessette
13 July 1926 to 09 March 2014Rita entered this life 13 July 1926, and was finally able to catch the 2:29 pm bus on Sunday, 09 March 2014, to begin her journey to her Heavenly Home. Our precious Mom, Memere, Sister, Aunt and Friend was helped onto the bus by her dedicated and loving family, and by the guardian angels who so lovingly cared for her over the past few years at the Franklin County Rehabilitation Center in St. Albans.
Born in Burlington, VT the fifth child and second daughter of the eleven children of Edouard and Orinda (Duhamel) Bourgeois, Rita grew up in family with little material wealth, but gifted with a deep faith in God and His will in their lives. This deep faith would manifest itself many times over the years among her brothers and sisters and their families as life’s twists and turns brought both great joy and great sadness: great joy, especially with the birth of each child into the ever-expanding extended family, and great sadness as one family member after another passed away leaving a hole that could never really be filled.
Rita was married on 26 April 1952 to Rudolph J. Bessette in St. Joseph Church in Burlington and moved to Fairfax to work on the family farm with Rudolph and her brother-in-law Robert. Rudolph pre-deceased Rita on October 16, 1952. Rita, having already fallen in love with the home and farm, chose to stay in Fairfax to operate the farm alongside Robert, with her mother-in-law and father-in-law moving back to the homestead to assist them. Rita proudly told stories of herself, the city girl, driving a team of workhorses to tend the fields. She could also handle those heavy milk cans with the best of them. Over time the two farmers fell in love and became Mr. & Mrs. Robert H. Bessette in small ceremony on 19 October 1953 at St. Luke Church in Fairfax.
Rita and Robert were blessed with the birth of two sons, Robert Edward on 16 February 1956 and Stephen Edward on 07 July 1962. On 20 December 1966, Rita became a forty-year-old single mother to her sons after her husband Robert’s sudden death from a cerebral thrombosis at the age of fifty-five.
Rita continued to care for her mother-in-law, Emily Cross Bessette, in their home until 1974, and after that with daily trips to Emily’s nursing home in St. Albans until her death in 1978.
Rita maintained a loving and simple home life for her family. Her boys awoke Monday morning to the smell of bleach as the laundry was underway in the wringer washer. Tuesday was ironing, Wednesday the trip “up street” to St. Albans for shopping and groceries, Thursday was upstairs cleaning, Friday was downstairs cleaning, Saturday was cooking and baking in preparation for Sunday when one or more of Rita’s brothers or sisters and their families would come up to Fairfax to enjoy family time, sledding and snowball fights in the winter or nature exploration and chasing the chickens around the yard as they escaped the city’s summer heat. Mom absolutely loved entertaining whoever came to her home and that always included ample amounts of the foods she loved to prepare, especially her famous creampuffs.
After Bob and his wife Kathy bought the homestead in 1981, Rita lived in an apartment next to her sister-in-law, Reba Ellsworth Bessette in “the village” of Fairfax until she came back to live with Bob and Kathy and their children from 1985 until 2007, when repeated complications from knee replacement surgery and a mastectomy necessitated that Rita remain in a long term care facility for rehabilitation. As a result of at least two small strokes and the ravages of osteoarthritis, Rita realized she was unable to return to her Fairfax home. Rita had three close brushes with death involving respiratory arrest and cardiac arrest, near cardiac arrest and numerous severe urinary tract infections from the indwelling catheter that she so patiently endured for several years. We joked often that she kept “missing the bus” to her Heavenly Home because she was waiting at the train station.
Rita’s final home was the Franklin County Rehabilitation Center in St. Albans where she was a much loved resident from November 2011 until her passing, five days after a devastating stroke.
No words can express the love with which her FCRC family cared for her. Rita would definitely want to express her deepest gratitude to all the FCRC staff and hopefully without offending anyone, especially to Zach “Zeke” Benedicto, Christie Bruyette and also to Karen Tibbits who was present with Rita’s family as she “caught the bus”.
Rita is survived by her youngest son Stephen and eldest son Bob, his wife Kathy, and their children, Emily and Justin Wills, Marc Bessette and his girlfriend Brittany Northam, and Tim and Katie Bessette, who are the parents of Rita’s first great-grandchild to be born in September 2014.
Rita is also survived by her siblings, Lionel Bourgeois (d. Margaret), Yvonne Cross (d. Armand), Armand (d. Janice) and Marie Bourgeois, Jeannette and Walter “Tom” Troescher, and Arthur and Claudia Bourgeois, her sister-law Rose (d. Ernest) Bourgeois, Jeannie Steele and many nieces, nephews, and other beloved relatives and close friends.
Rita was pre-deceased by her parents, Robert’s parents Henry and Emily Bessette, her siblings and their spouses: Beatrice and Harry Gallagher, Ernest Bourgeois, Sr., Emile and Jeanne Bourgeois, Robert “Joe” and Therese Bourgeois, and Harry Bourgeois and by Robert’s brothers and their wives: Francis and Reba Bessette and Harold and Beatrice Bessette.
A Mass of Christian Burial and a celebration of Rita’s life will be held on Saturday, 26 April 2014 at 11:00 am at St. Luke Church in Fairfax. Because family and friends were able to be with Rita during her final days before her passing, there will be no visiting hours. Following the Mass, and at her request, Rita will be present for the Bereavement Reception in the Church Hall in a private area surrounded not only by photographs and a few personal mementoes she cherished, but also by the love of all her family and friends gathered to celebrate her life.
At Rita’s request, the family asks that instead of flowers, if you wish, donations may be sent to the St. Luke Memorial Fund, St. Luke Church, PO Box 7 Fairfax, VT 05454 or to the Resident Enrichment Fund, FCRC 110 Fairfax Road, St. Albans, VT 05478.
The Minor Funeral Home of Milton are providing compassionate and loving arrangements for the family.
Online condolences may be made at
www.minorfh.com 
