PAMELA ELAINE (DOW) REID BLOOMFIELD, NEW BRUNSWICK and HOULTON – Pamela Elaine (Dow) Reid, passed away suddenly on Saturday Sept. 22, at St Joseph’s Hospital in Tucson, AZ. She was born October 19, 1954, in Watertown, CT, the daughter of Willis Fredrick Dow and Phyllis Rose (Willett) Dow.
Pam had many adventures in life. She loved to travel and took advantage of every opportunity, from being employed at Seaborne Hospital in NH, where she would go as a chaperone for snorkeling and beach-going, to assisting her children to sell candy bars to late night hospital staff at Frisbee Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NH, to go to Washington, D.C., as well as Lancaster County, PA.
Pam’s life work revolved around being a caregiver. She started as a mother working in a potato house, to studying with N.M.V.T.I. on a pilot program which produced registered nurses in 18 months. She started her nursing career at HRH in Houlton, then went to work for Frisbee Memorial and Seaborne Hospital in NH. Pam worked for three years at MRH in Millinocket, ME, where she got her BSN and certified in chemical dependency and youth crisis stabilization. She made many friends there, including her lifelong friends, Petie Cameron, and Sharon Blackie.
After an accident in 2001, Pam retired from nursing and spent the next ten years volunteering for a local food bank in Woodstock, NB Canada, using the skills learned over 26 years of nursing. During that time, she graduated many students from her “Cooking Class” (where “every recipe is only a guide”) giving them the skills to get jobs, go back to school, and to use the products given to the food bank to make yummy meals every Wednesday.
She met Jerry Reid in 1996, and they were married in Bloomfield, NB, Canada. This year marked their 22nd year of wedded bliss. In those 22 years, she went on cruises, traveled to see her grandchildren, played slots at the casinos, and even got a tattoo at age 58. Pam touched many lives in her 63 years. She was often quoted as saying “I can’t go anywhere and not find someone who recognizes me.” The last six years of her life was dedicated to traveling back and forth to dialysis at CDC in Presque Isle, ME. Because she was so full of life, she was interviewed by the CDC for a brochure that was being created to provide hope for people facing long-term dialysis, as a way to show that life doesn’t have to end with an E.S.R.D diagnosis.
She and her husband Jerry are survived by his mother, Lietha (Davenport) Reid; Jerry’s two brothers, Kenny and Ricky Reid; as well as his four sisters, Barbara (Reid) Boyd, Betty (Reid) Fredricks, Christine (Reid) Lockhard, and Sheila (Reid) Gee, all of Bloomfield, NB, Canada. She is survived by her siblings, Donna (Dow) Roupp and her husband, George of Sanford, ME, and her two brothers, Stephen Dow of Calais ME, and Michael Dischaine, of Eagle Lake, ME; and her four children, Christopher Carmichael and his wife, Carolyn, of Houlton, ME, S.F.C James J. Carmichael and his wife, Jennifer (Caban), of Ft. Hood, TX, Heidi (Carmichael) Smith and her husband, Stephen, of Tucson, AZ, and Philip Carmichael and his girlfriend, Renee La Point, of Herman, ME. She has 11 grandchildren, Nicholas Christopher and his wife, Daniela of Cadiz, KY; Sienna and Dane Funderburg of NC, Christian , Jasmine Lynne Rose, and William James of TX; Joshua Stephen, Alara, and Malcolm of Tucson AZ; and Jonathan Philip of Houlton, ME; as well as many stepgrandchildren and half grandchildren. Pam was predeceased by one grandchild, Dallas James Ferguson of New Brunswick, Canada; and a brother-in-law, Doug Reid of Carlton County, NB Canada.
Pam inspired hope in many people by just being there. She would often ask “Do you want me to fix it, or just listen?” She may be gone, but her spirit remains in the hearts and minds of every person who knew her.
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m., Friday, September 28, at Bowers Funeral Home, 10 Water St., Houlton, with Pastor Rob Smith officiating. To leave an online condolence please visit www.bowersfuneral.com.
