Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
~ Emily Dickinson
WASHINGTON D.C…Dr. Edna Lauretta (Burke) Bik passed away peacefully on April 26, 2016 after a brief illness.
Edna was born and raised in the French-speaking Flint section of Fall River, MA. She was a standout student from her earliest years at the bilingual Notre Dame School and Jesus-Mary Academy and was Valedictorian of her high school class in 1945. Devoted to her mother and special-needs sister, she worked to help support the family in Fall River and later in Providence, RI, where she met her future husband of 62 years, Walter Bik, at a dance in 1952. Tying the knot in 1953, they honeymooned in Bermuda, the start of her lifelong love of travel and of passionflowers (rivaled only by her passion for swans) and settled in East Providence, RI to raise two sons.
While life centered around her family during these years (den mother, running a neighborhood bowling league, organizing annual family vacations to Atlantic City and World’s Fairs), her ambition and desire for higher education was ever present. In 1965, she enrolled at the University of Rhode Island (URI) with the debut of the Continuing Education for Women (CEW) Program, in those days a novel concept for women with families. Juggling duties as wife, mother, homemaker and caregiver to her own mother and sister, she nevertheless excelled, becoming president of the CEW student council and graduating summa cum laude from the university overall as Salutatorian of the class of 1970, with a B.A. in English and Psychology. From there it was onward and upward, as she attained her M.S. in 1972 and her Ph.D. in 1980, both in psychology from URI. Dr. Bik was featured on the front page of the Providence Journal newspaper in 1967 and again in 1980, shortly before she received her doctoral degree.
Succumbing to the travel bug, the early 80’s found her relinquishing her position as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology at URI, and with her now-retired husband in tow, taking positions as School Psychologist in Louisiana and later in Germany with the U.S. Army, affording them the opportunity to travel the world. Retiring in 1985, she continued to organize family adventures and river cruises in the US and Europe, along with frequent visits to her sons in California and in Washington, DC, where she and Walter moved in 2005.
She was preceded in death by her sisters Irene and Alice and by her husband Walter, and is survived by her sons John and Steven.
Subscribing tongue-in-cheek to the philosophy “If Mama Ain’t Happy, Ain’t Nobody Happy”, she was famous for her sense of humor through thick and thin. Indeed, when something tickled her funny-bone, the belly laugh that followed would shake the rafters. She will always be remembered for her love of and fierce devotion to family, adventurous spirit and thirst for knowledge. Most of all, she was the engine that drove her kids to ever higher achievement and our family to ever happier times. She remains immortal due to the love we have for her in our hearts.