In Memory

Lucie Anne Pelletier - Class Of 1985

HENRICO, Va. -- A graveside service for Dr. Lucie Anne Pelletier, a veterinarian who was co-owner of Three Chopt Animal Clinic in western Henrico County, will be held at 11 a.m. today, Thursday, in Hollywood Cemetery, 412 S. Cherry St. in Richmond.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Broaddus Memorial Baptist Church, 5351 Pole Green Road in Mechanicsville.

Dr. Pelletier, 45, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, liver cancer in 2009 and brain cancer in 2010, died Sunday at her Glen Allen home.

"Everyone was amazed by her courage and ability to keep going," said her husband and clinic partner, Dr. Daniel C. Longest Sr.

When she was first diagnosed with cancer and had surgery, "she'd go get radiation during her lunch time and still work. She'd go on her afternoon off for chemotherapy. She wanted to continue working, and she did until she had brain cancer. She had to give up work at that point," her husband said.

"She was as much an inspiration with her outlook. A lot of people were not aware that she was facing terminal cancer."

Dr. Pelletier, a Vero Beach, Fla., native, was the youngest of six children. Growing up, she always empathized with animals, from two baby orphaned owls found after some trees were chopped down to an abandoned bearded collie she found during a Girl Scout hike on the Appalachian Trail and adopted.

Her father's job brought the family to Alexandria when she was 7. She graduated magna cum laude in biochemistry from Virginia Tech in 1989. Three years later, she earned her veterinary degree from Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.

She interned at Kings Dominion one summer and at a horse farm in Leesburg.

Her first job was as an associate veterinarian at Caroline Animal Hospital from 1992 to 1997. Dr. Debra Grissom, the owner, said that "she was one of the best veterinarians she had worked with and one of the most wonderful human beings."

After a stint at Three Chopt Animal Clinic from 1997 to 1999, Dr. Pelletier worked at Goochland Animal Clinic.

However, she had met her future husband, also a veterinarian, at Three Chopt Animal Clinic. She returned to the Three Chopt Clinic in 2000, and the vets married in 2003. At their marriage, they had six dogs, one horse and cats between them.

"While all vets would say they love animals, her love extended to those pests often eliminated, such as spiders, wasps, bees, snakes, etc.," her husband wrote in an email. "She would take them outside or away from others to prevent them from being injured." She was interested in exotic pets and surgery.

Julie Serfass recalled the way "Dr. Lucie" cared for her rescue hound, Bo, as he died of kidney failure in 2003.

During an impromptu visit to Bo during one of his hospitalizations, she found Dr. Pelletier "sitting on the floor with my sweet Bo in her lap, IV lines and all. I teared up and asked her if we were insane to spend the money on this ancient, sick hound trying to buy him a little time.

"She smiled that famous smile of hers and said, 'No — he was special.'

"Bo's life ended at the Veterinary Referral and Critical Care Center, and Dr. Lucie confided she was glad it was there, as she wasn't sure she was strong enough to tell him goodbye. I argue with that — Dr. Lucie was one of the strongest women I have ever known. Who else could have fought this fight (with cancer) for so long?"

Dr. Pelletier loved Great Danes and horses.

She was a former president of the Central Virginia Veterinary Medicine Association.

In addition to her husband, survivors include her parents, Neil and Alice L. Pelletier of Alexandria; two sisters, Michelle Kirby of Edenton, N.C., and Elise Bissell of North Beach, Md.; three brothers, Guy N. Pelletier of Chantilly, Marc Pelletier of Upper Marlboro, Md., and Remi Pelletier of Mechanicsville; a stepson, Daniel Longest Jr. of Charlottesville; and a stepdaughter, Elizabeth Longest of Richmond.
 


Source: Richmond-Times Dispatch