It’s always great to have an update from Doris (Dottie) Richard Marshall who kindly wrote that she enjoyed reading the latest Maine Alumni issue. She said in her email: “All is well here – enjoy having my daughter Kristin and daughter-in-law Sharon (and their two dogs) living with me. Son James and his family also live in southern Connecticut so I see them fairly often. Will be seeing my other son Dave and his family when we go to Maryland in September for my granddaughter Rebecca’s wedding. Two of my grandchildren were married last summer. Now I am hoping for a great-grandchild!” A few days later I received this P.S. from Dottie: “Sadly I do have some news to report. Just this morning I had a call from Phil Emery that his wife, Sylvia McKenzie Emery, passed away on August 14 from heart problems. Their daughter lives nearby and is helping to care for Phil now as he is using a wheelchair. He lives in Westminster, MD. I certainly have great memories of times with Sylvia and Phil. She was my college roommate all four years and Phil and my husband Scott were in Phi Mu together. Sylvia both sang and was a bridesmaid at our wedding.”
Wes English, class of ’57 says that he expects his barn (still under construction in Bridgton, Maine) to be ready to receive Black Bear visitors during the summer of 2024. He wrote: “The barn is 58 feet long by 36 feet wide, has an eight inch high stage for private music events, and a residential kitchen for entertaining. It is of timber frame construction and styled to resemble an alpine chalet. The location of the barn is 177 South High Street, Bridgton, just a little over a mile down South High Street from the monument. So if you are driving through Bridgton next summer and you see the big barn door open, drop in to exchange a ‘Maine Hello,’ have a beverage, and sing a chorus of the Stein Song with Wes & LuWayne.”
An email from Earl Adams: My wife, Sheila, and I along with my daughter, Susan ’86, and her husband Garrett, spent six months planning a trip to Ireland for early September. Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived in the Emerald Isle, Sheila and I contracted Covid. So rather than enjoying the many beautiful sights of Ireland, we had to quarantine for the entire trip. Fortunately we had a lovely old, stone Irish cottage in the western countryside in the area of Tulla. We had a pasture full of cattle that provided some diversion. Susan located the only doctor in town who prescribed our necessary medications to get us on the road to recovery. It was not exactly the way we had planned to enjoy that beautiful country. Little did we know that Johnny Cash’s song of Ireland, “40 Shades of Green”, would include the shade of a Covid pill!”
In a call from Les Smith, I learned that his wife and our dear classmate Liz Hibbard Smith is in a care facility in Brunswick, Maine close to the retirement home where Les and Liz have lived for several years. Les is able to visit often as does their daughter who lives 20 miles away. As most of you know, Liz wrote our class news for twenty years!
A welcome note from Nancy McGouldrick Green gave the following news: “My husband and I are living in Mrs. Bush’s Personal Care Home with a mountain right behind us. About 40 people live here. The food is excellent with all kinds of things to do.” [The retirement home is in Kunkletown, PA at the base of Blue Mountain.]
I called Barbara Swann Pineau several months ago when I heard that her husband Marty had passed away. In a recent telephone conversation, Barbara and I talked about the wonderful senior living community she and Marty moved to several years ago, Linden Ponds in Hingham, MA, which is one of twenty-two Erickson Senior Living settlements in the US. Although the Pineaus would have liked to stay in Maine, it made sense to move closer to both their children, and Linden Ponds is in a beautiful, wooded area, a reminder of their beloved home state. The 1400 residents have everything there to help them enjoy life; they can be as active as they wish. There’s a performing arts building, library, store, club houses, beauty parlor, pub-type restaurant (if one wants a change from the dining room meals, which Barb said are very good), medical facilities, and shuttle buses to get from place to place if one doesn’t want to drive or no longer drives. There are concerts and lectures and classes one can attend, free movies every night shown on the local TV station and twice a week in the performing arts building. Barbara, always a very active person, four years ago started with a friend a mystery book club that meets once a month with an average of 25 people attending. She with a couple of other women are currently writing a booklet that will make widows aware of the myriad tasks that need to be done upon the loss of a partner.
If you’re tired of grocery shopping, cooking three meals a day, mowing the lawn, raking leaves, shoveling snow, one might consider a senior living community!
As Bugs Bunny (and Porky Pig before him) would say, “That’s all, Folks.” Please pick up the phone, email or text me some news for our next column! Would you like to hear about a classmate, and you’ve lost touch? Let me know who it is, and I’ll do my best to reach the person. My contact information is at the top of the column.