BONNEY LAKE, Wash. – After a busy day of family visits, playful pets, and activity, our beloved sister, mother and grandmother peacefully slipped away from us and the world on Jan. 10, 2024, at her home in Bonney Lake, Wash. with her family by her side. Susan was just 64 years old.

She was born Susan Laurie Bickford in Waterville on April 12, 1959 – the same year Barbie was born – to Stanley Amos Bickford and Joanne Alice Fales. She was the youngest of three girls and had three older brothers and two younger brothers.

Susan grew up on the family farm in Benton, which is where her love of horses began, and continued throughout her life. On the farm there was an ornery pony, several horses and her special Arabian named Reka. Of course, there were also chickens, cows, pigs, a Boston Terrier named Sam and several sheep named Harry, for those who know.

She attended Benton Elementary School and Lawrence High School in Fairfield, graduating with the class of 1977. She joined just about every school group or participated in every possible sport she could. Many of her Lawrence classmates became her lifelong friends.

Susan was always fiercely independent and lived her life on her own terms. After graduation she moved to Washington D.C. and lived with Mahlon at his college fraternity for a while. She worked as a dental hygienist at the infamous Watergate office building. Mahlon sometimes worked nearby, and they were often able to have lunch together at the Watergate restaurant during the late ’70s and early ’80s. Those were fun times.

In the early 1980s she moved back to Maine and met and married Dan Caswell in 1988. She and Dan lived in South Portland where daughter, Kelly, was born and then at Lake Tahoe, Nev. where their son, Matthew, was born. Susan and Dan went their separate ways for a while, and married others for a time but eventually got back together in the early 2000s, got married again and lived in Bonney Lake, Wash.

Her happiest times were with her children, watching them grow, graduate, helping plan Kelly’s wedding, golfing with Matt, travelling to Mexico, and spending time with her grandson, Baker. Then there were those two Pomeranians, Opie and Reggie. She loved those little fluff balls.

She had an affinity for all things Maine and New England, especially Maine lobster, which she often overnighted to the West Coast. She loved the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox and often dressed the dogs, and herself, in Tom Brady wear and Red Sox merch. It was a genetic memory as her ancestors were the Founders of New England and the original patriots.

Susan also loved to travel, the bigger the cruise ship the better! With her travel partner Sue Q., they took no less than eight cruises around the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea area visiting dozens of countries and then the Pacific Northwest coast up to Alaska. Postcards from her covered our refrigerator. Her phone and Facebook page and travel books have hundreds of photos of her having fun from Cabo San Lucas to St. Petersburg, Russia.

Susan’s smile was infectious, and she was the life of the party at all our family gatherings and reunions – or anyone’s gatherings for that matter. She loved to eat, drink, and have conversations with everyone.

She was predeceased by her brother, Patrick in 1984; her daughter, Hilary J. Sperrey in 1997; and her father in 2003 and mother in 2018.

Susan is survived by her husband, Daniel T. Caswell of Bonney Lake, Wash.; her daughter, Kelly J. and her husband Doug Ault of San Diego, Calif.; her son, Matthew P. Caswell and fiancé Alysha Brown and her grandson, Baker B. Caswell of Sumner, Wash. She is also survived by two sisters, Maureen Blodgett and husband Terry of Benton, Brenda Welch and her husband Bill of Auburn, and four brothers, Tim and partner Jackie of Benton, Mahlon and his husband Don of Unity, Bruce Bickford of Auburn, and Stanley and his wife Stacey of Woburn, Mass.; as well as countless cousins and nieces and nephews and all her Lawrence classmates and many friends around the world.

Her life was so much more than can be captured here. She will forever live in the hearts of her family and friends and will be greatly missed by all.

Honoring her wishes, her family will hold private celebrations of her life on the East Coast and the West Coast.

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