LAURIE SANDEMAN FITZGERALD
February 4, 1944 ˜ December 13, 2022

Laurie Sandeman Fitzgerald, 78, died Dec. 13, 2022, in Vancouver, WA.

She was born Feb. 4, 1944, in Wakefield, RI, the daughter of Stuart James Sandeman and Dorothy Elizabeth Kingsley Sandeman.

She grew up near Narragansett Bay and was a lifelong lover of the sea. She graduated from North Kingstown High School in 1962. She graduated from Syracuse University in 1966 with a BA in sociology and also studied music.

Her husband, Thomas Louis Fitzgerald, once said of her that she had "an uncommon capacity to love," which aptly describes her and the arc of her life. She devoted her life to helping the vulnerable, both emotionally and economically. She worked as a case worker, the Director of Strafford County Head Start, and a marriage and family therapist after completing her training at the University of New Hampshire. She finished her career helping to build a children's grief counseling program called Friend's Way in Rhode Island. For her work, she received the Hope Award for meritorious service to the people of Rhode Island by the governor.

Laurie loved music, treating her husband and three children to folk songs played on her beautiful Goya classical guitar. She always used nylon strings, never steel. She eventually joined the Chorus of Westerly as a mezzo-soprano and sang joyously with them for many years. She also loved to cook, and her cooking was an act of love.

She is survived by her aforementioned husband; her three sons, Joshua Fitzgerald Sandeman (wife Jennifer), Matthew John Fitzgerald (wife Nataki), Sean Thomas Fitzgerald (wife Jocelyn); and her sister, Lorna Jane Sandeman Nutt. She has three grandchildren, Caleb Sandeman, Luca Sandeman, and Dax Fitzgerald.

A memorial service is to be held in late Spring.