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- Van Hisen and Callagan Funeral Home
Patricia M. Bickens
June 18, 1953 ? February 25, 2023
Patricia M. Bickens of Point Pleasant Beach passed away on February 25, 2023, with her family by her side.
Patricia (née Bassett) was born in South Amboy in 1953, on a heat-record breaking day that has yet to be topped. Raised in Sayreville, she was a loving big sister to her five younger siblings, changing diapers and feeding babies before she was out of grade school.
Pat met her soon-to-be husband, ?Kevin from housewares,? at the Square Circle store in Parlin. Thus began a love that would last for over 50 years, from prom date to life-long partner. The two married in 1973 and soon settled into their home of 45 years in Point Pleasant Beach.
Pat graduated from Georgian Court University in 1975, a proud member of the school?s first class of special education teachers. She taught for four years at a National Head Start program for preschool students with special needs in Tuckerton. After a brief break to have her two children, Patricia worked as a special education teacher at G. Harold Antrim Elementary School in Point Pleasant Beach, retiring after over 30 years of service, during which she taught nearly every grade and iteration of special education at the school.
Patricia was a skilled teacher, supporting students who faced struggles in the classroom. She took pride in teaching students with learning challenges how to read and write, tackle math, and gain confidence. Whether it be through a phonics trick, a multiplication rhyme, or diligent practice, Pat was often able to bring students up to grade-level and set them up for success in high school and beyond. She inspired a joy in learning in her students as she taught imaginative novels (A Wrinkle in Time was a favorite) and took on creative projects (student run bake sales were always a hit). As she and her husband would take walks around town (sometimes with their beloved dog, Maizie), she was always thrilled to see former students and parents, many of whom would stop her to thank her for being such an amazing teacher.
Pat was not just a teacher by trade, but a teacher to her family as well. She conveyed lessons practical and philosophical, both directly and by her own example. She taught her children how to park a car and iron a shirt, but also how to treat others kindly and celebrate differences with an open mind. She demonstrated the importance of hard work, patience, perseverance, and empathy through her own embodiment of these traits. A lover of the arts ? literature, film, museums, music, and television high and low-brow ? Pat delighted in everything from a Springsteen concert to a Matisse exhibit, from an Elin Hilderbrand beach read to a Broadway show. She encouraged this love of nearly all artistic expressions in her family. Pat was an avid exerciser, a runner, spinner, yogi, and walker, and instilled in her family the healing power of exercise on the mind and body. She loved nature, camping, hiking in the woods, and sitting on the beach (especially now gone Beacon Beach) and made sure to raise her children with an appreciation of the outdoors. Starting with trips to many of the country?s national parks, Pat expanded her love of travel in her later years with trips all over the world, from Spain to Greece to Hungary, and relished sampling the food and culture of these new places. She taught her children to embrace the adventure of travel and enjoyed the worldwide adventures she and Kevin took together after their children were grown.
Perhaps most importantly, Pat gave to her family a model for how to love strongly and deeply. She was a passionate defender of and champion for those she loved. Her husband, children, grandchildren, family and friends always knew how loved they were, through her actions, words, and heartfelt cards and messages. She would work tirelessly to make her loved ones happy, be it through driving to sports practices, cooking an elaborate dinner, hosting a giant birthday sleepover, or, in recent years, babysitting grandchildren and tackling an excess of laundry. Pat was a generous giver of presents, for her children, nieces and nephews, and later for her grandchildren. She was the driving force behind all holiday celebrations, creating overstuffed goody bags for birthdays and over-the-top stockings for Christmas. Pat retired in 2015 to help care for her granddaughters, for a time making a weekly odyssey to Queens via NJ Transit and the subway with a giant bag of casseroles for dinner and children?s treats in tow. She took immense joy in being ?Mom-Mom,? reading piles of books, making pancakes, going on Target shopping sprees, and visiting playgrounds. Pat always reminded her granddaughters they were ?simply the best,? and with her unconditional adoration she passed these lessons of love on to another generation. While the love Patricia cultivated in the world will remain, she will be greatly missed.
Patricia was predeceased by her parents Albert and Marlene Bassett. She is survived by her husband, Kevin; her daughter, Sarah Bickens, and her husband, Christopher Lagares, of Astoria, Queens and their children, Beatrice and Luisa; her son, Joshua Bickens, and his partner, Kristy Sullivan, of San Francisco, CA; her siblings, including Carolyn Wriolie of Parlin, NJ and Michael Bassett of Port Orange, FL, and many nieces and nephews.
A family memorial service was held privately. Donations may be made in Patricia?s memory to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, www.pancan.org.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1953 - 2023 (69 years)