Hospital volunteer for decades showed lifelong kindness to and interest in everyone around her Nancy Johnson Bassett of North Pomfret, Vt., left this life on her own terms on November 15, 2024. After a vibrant and energetic life of 99 years and a brief illness, she died peacefully where and how she had wished — at the Jack Byrne Center in Lebanon, N.H. Born in Fairfield, Conn., on August 22, 1925, Nancy was the daughter of Mabel Gravesen and John Peter Johnson. She was a graduate of Roger Ludlow High School in Fairfield and of Oberlin College. On the afternoon of her Oberlin graduation in 1947, she married fellow Oberlin graduate John Putnam Bassett, also of Fairfield. Nancy was coeditor of the Oberlin Review and, during summer 1944, a reporter for the Bridgeport Post. As a 19-year-old, Nancy was assigned to call on the bereaved families of soldiers who had died on D-Day. During the war, Nancy used her father’s gas rations to drive cancer patients to their treatments in New York City. These experiences helped inform her lifelong kindness to, and interest in, everyone around her. Nancy and John lived in San Francisco for several years after their marriage, returning to Fairfield in the early 1950s, where they raised their family. In 1951, John started an independent insurance agency in Bridgeport, where Nancy initially maintained the books. As the business grew, Nancy was able to hand off this work to focus on her family and volunteer work. In 1962, John and Nancy bought an abandoned house on the Bassett family farm in North Pomfret. Beloved by parents and children, the home became central to decades of family life. Nancy and John welcomed friends and family to their home — filled more with love than with heat. North Pomfret became their full-time home after John’s retirement in 1993. Nancy embraced life in North Pomfret, becoming involved in her community and building lifelong friendships. She especially loved her neighbors, whose kindness and support meant so much to her. Hospital volunteering was central to Nancy’s life from the 1960s until the pandemic. At Bridgeport Hospital, she served on the board, as well as a committee that established the Clinical Pastoral Education Program. During a stay in Kenya for the International Executive Service Corps, Nancy volunteered at a hospital refuge for young mothers and their babies. For more than 25 years, Nancy served as a patient family adviser at Dartmouth Hitchcock. She visited patients, capturing their…