Serena Vegessi Schick of Montauk died on November 24 from COVID-related complications at Southampton Hospital. She was 42.
She was born at Southampton Hospital on June 28, 1979. She attended East Hampton High School and then graduated from Virginia Wesleyan University with a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy. Following graduation from college in 2002, she returned to Montauk and started working with her father, Captain Michael Vegessi, on the family fishing boat the Lazybones.
In 2014, she obtained her U.S. Coast Guard license and purchased a 35-foot Duffy fishing boat, and along with her sister Rebecca, operated the charter boat Ladybones. In their first year of operation, the sister team captured first place in the Montauk Mercury Grand Slam fishing tournament.
In 2010, she married Dustin Schick , a commercial fisherman. They first lived in Cape May, New Jersey, and then Phoenix, Arizona, before she returned to Montauk in June.
“Serena picked up from where she started from and began doing what she loved and was always meant to be, working on the water with her father,” said her mother, Kathy. “The thing I loved about her being home was her laughter, her beautiful smile, and her tight hugs. Her heart truly never left Montauk.”
She is survived by her mother Kathy; her father Michael; her husband Dustin; her two beautiful sons, Vance and Hunter; her sister Rebecca Gagnon and her husband Danny and their daughter Temperance and son Kaliber; many aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews.
She will be cremated and her ashes will be spread upon Block Island Sound from the Lazybones later this summer. Memorial donations may be made to the Montauk Ambulance Squad or the Montauk Friends of Erin.