Lucy Gordon Potter

Lucy Gordon Potter, 68, beloved wife, mother, sister, friend, and a fierce advocate at Greater Hartford Legal Aid, died of ovarian cancer on May 2, 2025. She was surrounded by her family, who miss her dearly.
Lucy was observant, sensitive, and witty, traits which made her an excellent conversational partner across the dining room table, in the car on a long drive (with or without a destination), or on a walk.
Lucy brought bursts of enthusiasm and humor to small, daily moments. She loved thrift stores and spent time each week sorting through the racks at the former Clothes Horse, Goodwill, or Savers, delighting in a good deal. She made a breakfast sandwich each Wednesday with ham and fried tomatoes. Despite the regularity of her routine, she would often exclaim on Tuesday evening how much she was looking forward to eating her breakfast creation the next morning. She would excitedly share an interview she found insightful or a song she thought was really special ("The Dog Days Are Over" by Florence and the Machine, "This Must Be the Place" by the Talking Heads), her appreciation contagious.
Lucy loved poetry by Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, and Stanley Kunitz and the novel South Riding by Winifred Holtby. She found the cartoons of Roz Chast hilarious. She herself did drawings and watercolors, for her own amusement, and for valentines and birthday cards. She was a gifted writer. She had a knack for using words to show her love and appreciation in letters and notes to her family and friends and others.
Lucy met her husband Tim Everett in 1981 at the University of Connecticut School of Law. They bonded through discussing and learning about one another's distinctive families. Tim was the love of her life. They married in 1993, Lucy having gracefully become an essential member of Tim's family. They filled their 32 years of marriage with reliably wonderful routines, debriefing their days over pasta most evenings; watching Washington Week each Friday and BBC Productions such as the 1995 Pride and Prejudice with their daughters many, many times; and on weekends, leisurely passing sections of the New York Times across the table, reading interesting tidbits aloud to each other. Lucy often commented to her two daughters, Anna and Gwen Everett, that even after decades of marriage, she still relished her wide-ranging conversations with their father.
Anna and Gwen feel very lucky and proud to have been raised by Lucy. When the girls were young, Lucy made scavenger hunts for them in the backyard (which she called the "Raisin Bird") and laughed genuinely at the plays they put on for their parents. When the girls grew up, their favorite activity with Lucy was to go for a long drive with her, stopping at a thrift store or Marshall's along the way, talking about whatever was on Lucy's mind or theirs – politics, feelings, the past, gossip, or other reflections. Lucy kept notebooks of quotes she loved and would include things Anna and Gwen had said, which both girls take as an honor.
Lucy worked for thirty-nine years as an attorney at Greater Hartford Legal Aid, where she represented people seeking public benefits and advocated for more inclusive policies at the legislature. She had a thorough, expert command over her area of law, which she used to methodically correct the injustices her clients faced. Though never motivated by external recognition, she won the Charles J. Parker Legal Services Award in 2024 after her retirement. The Connecticut Bar Association gives the award to one public interest attorney who has "a deep and abiding interest in and dedication to the delivery of legal services to the disadvantaged in Connecticut." She was quite pleased to have a career that suited her so well. She inspired both of her daughters to pursue public interest, direct services jobs as lawyers. She came to the law after holding other roles, conducting research on old houses in Connecticut and working with people with intellectual disabilities in England and Massachusetts. These are jobs she remembered fondly and often.
Lucy was the fourth of five children. She was born in England on May 30, 1956. As a toddler, she relocated with her family to Westfield, New Jersey, where she and her siblings could be seen riding unicycles around the neighborhood. She served as a magician's assistant for her brother Tony's magic shows. Some who went to college with Lucy still remember her riding a unicycle around the Wesleyan campus. She is survived by Tim, Anna and Anna's wife Ally Dell, Gwen and Gwen's partner Gabe Amaya, and her older siblings, Sarah Potter (Jon Clune), Simon Potter (Pamela Potter), and Anthony "Tony" Potter (Iris Keppo). She adored all of her siblings and greatly missed her younger brother, Edward "Ted" Potter (Lynn Cochrane), after he passed away. She is also survived by her nieces, nephews, Tim's family, and many dear friends.
A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, May 10, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. at the Unitarian Society of Hartford, 50 Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford, CT. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her honor to Greater Hartford Legal Aid, https://www.ghla.org/. Online condolences may be made at www.SheehanHilbornBreen.com