Longtime pediatrician Dr. Patrician Patterson died suddenly at her home on Saturday, according to family members.

She was 74.

Friends, family and loved ones took time to speak about the woman who dedicated her life to helping others.

Glenn Alexander, a nurse practitioner who had known Patterson since 1980, said it is difficult to describe the woman who was not only his boss and mentor but friend.

“It’s hard to find the words to define a person’s soul,” Alexander said. “She was very giving with a true heart and concern and true passion for pediatric medicine. She had a passion that was unbelievable; every moment with her was a teaching moment for me. She imparted knowledge and wisdom all of the time.”

Alexander first met Patterson at a time when pediatricians donated time at well baby clinics at the Port Arthur Health Clinic. They worked together again when Alexander went to graduate school and Patterson was his supervising physician.

Patterson, he said, even brought her own children to him for care.

Her stepson, Reginald Green, said she was so much to so many people.

“She was a very kind, gentle, knowledgeable lady who had time for everyone and was very easy to approach,” Green said. “She was very empathetic with people and she was a giver and would do whatever she could for anybody.”

Patterson was a native of Washington, D.C. and met her husband, who was from Port Arthur, and moved to Texas in the late 1970s, Green said.

Paul Washington, her son, said his mother was the type of person who would help anyone who needed help.

“She was one of the strongest women I’ve ever known in my whole life, Washington said. “She raised me and my brother and sister. She was my rock. I would do anything and everything for her. I she needed me for anything at the moment I would stop what I was doing to help. She was a warrior, a very, very strong woman who loved her children and the children she took care of.”

Patterson was last working at the Gulf Coast Health Center in the pediatrics department. She had been there for 10 years.

“Our pediatric department is devastated,” Dr. Marsha Thigpen with the health center, said. “She was a bedrock of the pediatric community here.”

Thigpen said Patterson was a physician who cared about her patients and the community. The center is working to find someone to fill the position left open with Patterson’s passing. She also said they are working to reschedule patients with other providers at this time.

Funeral arrangements are pending.