ONCE UPON A TIME IN TAUNTON: A LESSON IN CARING FOR OUR ELDERS

Let's face it,  the times today are complicated for all of us,  especially so for our seniors.  Navigating the pitfalls of  Medicare/Medicaid and the like can be hazardous for anyone's health.  Grown children often live far from their parents and grandparents. The need for assisted living or nursing facilities can become a necessity, and a frustrating business for all concerned.

Not everyone today can live in a place like the School Street Village of yesteryear or on one of the Sardinian Islands in the Mediterranean remaining in the bosom of family and friends.

 As I mentioned in the last post, it was nearly unheard of for an elderly parent or grandparent not to live with family in the Village when I was a child in the 40's and 50's.  Like a cocoon or an oasis, the Village cared for its own.  Somehow, that family value endured for years. The times were conducive to that, they were softer, more family oriented and families were strong and intact.  Now, our American culture is sometimes almost unrecognizable.  The elders of our time are no longer a priority for inclusion.  This is a unavoidable fact of life for many reasons.

That transition took years and years to change as family, individuals and society morphed into one that was more egocentric, less concerned with honoring its elders and treasuring their gifts. Recently, Pope Francis said, ..."children are the future of a family, grandparents are its memory."

Looking back we see the factors early on.  In the late 1880's the great migration West took place in the U.S.A.  Families often left parents behind who could not cope with the arduous trip. The Civil War would mean that fathers and sons would disappear leaving a tremendous hole in family life.  Also, there was a movement into more urban areas which accomplished the same leaving behind.  To cope society did what it could. There was the rise of the poorhouse where mentally ill, and destitute were often thrown together in a terrible mix with those simply to poor to cope and with the elderly who were alone.  But, also, in the American way back then there came the advent of benevolent societies who tried to help in a more humane and genteel way the plight of left behind parents and grandparents and the single and widowed elderly.

A benevolant society did come forth in in that tradition with a group of determined women in Taunton. A sign of those years of yesterday was the gracious way that needy elderly ladies were helped by this group in the City and in many cities and towns throughout the country.  Back in those days, government intervention was not nearly as invasive as it is today.  Then, charitable groups often assisted those in need of services making that charity more personal, and most likely, more cost efficient.

In 1815, that group of concerned Taunton women became aware of the fate of the population of single elderly ladies in the City. Many of those elderly were alone and in those days had no old age  assistance programs.  The group of charitable women held teas and fairs managing to pay for rent and food for needy single women in their later years. Finally, in1829 they obtained a state charter and were called The Taunton Female Charitable Organization. It is still listed as a non-profit in Raynham MA with a corresponding post office box number.

       Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives in General Court
       assembled and the authority of the same as follows: The Taunton Female Charitable
       Association, in addition to the powers now vested in said corporation, is hereby
       authorized to establish and maintain in the City of Taunton a home for the relief of
       aged and indigent women; and said Association is hereby authorized to receive
       grants, devises and donations for the use and purposes herein specified, etc.

Donations were generous. Mr. Edward Padelford, of Savannah, Georgia, giving two thousand
dollars, the Ladies went to work to find a house suitable for their purpose.(Who was this gentlemen?).  In January, 1871, they opened their doors at 96 Broadway and during that month and the following ones, they received 8 members to the Home. Twelve Founding Ladies took turns supervising the Home.  Matrons and domestic help were obtained.

This is a lovely postcard of the Old Ladies' Home,  probably from the 20's or 30's by the look of the car.  I love this postcard, the sepia tones just exude genteel elegance and softness.

Applicants had to be born in the United States, be residents of Taunton for ten years preceding the application and be at least sixty years of age. They paid an entrance fee (often $100) which secured their care for the rest of their days.  A dozen ladies were able to live in the Home at any one time.  Eventually, throughout its existence 171 women were cared for there.  In the last two years that the Home existed there were only two ladies and the Home stayed open just for them fulfilling its mission to the end.

The yearly expenses of the Home amounted to $2,000 and were met by the Corporation. The first officers (elected yearly, a form of term limits, it seems) were:  Mrs. Erastus Maltby, Mrs. Samuel Southgate, Miss Mary L. Hartshorn, Mrs.E.U. Jones. There was a Board of 21 ladies 

as managers and six gentlemen as advisors who met monthly.

The Home on 96 Broadway was simply known as The Old Ladies' Home. Early on the Home was called the Home for Aged and Indigent Women..that was how it was listed in the City Listings.  I like Old Ladies Home much better, don't you?  This photo below is from a 1969 article in the Gazette when the Home was closed.   There was never a sign, there was no need, everyone knew what it was.

                   Elegant and lovely, one of those spearheading the Old Ladies' Home in Taunton

Charlotte Hodges Morton (wife of Marcus Morton, Judge and one time
  U.S. Vice Presidential Candidate).  Mrs. Morton was the first Directress

                     on the Taunton Ladies Home.  She was a busy woman, she had 12 children and had time for this as well as being involved with the Remonstrance Society in Boston
which wasanti-suffrogate (against the vote for women). She lived from 1801 - 1850.
Morton Hospital in Taunton is named for the Judge and the main
building was once their home.

The portrait is from the Frick Collection.

                   

We can close our eyes and see in our imaginations that the rooms in the Home looked like those below. This photo was taken in an Old Ladies' Home in New York state during the 1880's.   The residents often had teas and enjoyed hosting visits with friends.
What an antidote for senior loneliness. I am intrigued by the fact that the
victorian manner of decor we see here has come back, as people look for warmth in their surroundings. I also know of a lovely widow Village lady in her 100th year
who now lives in Marian Manor in Taunton who, until recently, 

hosted teas each Friday with her friends. Only now it was ginger ale and cookies. 

But, the warmth and camaraderie still shines on.

                                                                      Flickr photo

The Home had all the hallmarks of "a home". I do not say all such homes were perfect but they were surely an improvement over "warehousing" (a term used today) of the elderly today. Here is another photo of the Home in N.Y. The Home in Taunton would have had warm touches such as the fresh flowers, thanks to the Women who organized and ran it.

                          Below is the bedroom of one of the residents in the Home quoted above.

                  The Home for Old Ladies' in Taunton closed its doors in 1969. A person who grew

up nearby in Taunton remembers long befor that the ladies peacefully

 rocking in the rockers on the front porch.

   

                         


This is a photograph of ladies giving a fund raising tea circa 1930's for the Graham Old Ladies' Home in Brooklyn, N. Y., the closest home to the one in Taunton I could find.  The Home has been restored and refurbished and still could accept elderly ladies....for $800,000!

Over the years of its service, the Home never once had to place a resident into a Nursing Home,  Even if they had to engage a private nurse they kept the resident in her own surroundings at the 97 Broadway . The residents considered themselves a family. Nearly every day there was a visitor, a clergyman or a member of the Home's Managers who made sure no one went without attention.

Such a lesson to be found in this history, a lesson of local people caring for their own in the community.  A lesson dedication and hope.  Fortunate were those ladies of old, both those in the Home and those who served them.

It was delightful researching this post and once again reaching back to find a treasure that still teaches us today. The rise of bureaucratic rules for Homes for the Aged meant that the elderly were protected, but it also meant that such homes as we write about here could no longer exist.  Hence the loss of an opportunity for smaller homes much like anyone's homes where dignity and friendship abided. In the meantime. what a gift for those women who were able to live there.

" The (Women's) Charitable Organization has gone steadily forward with its good work- providing a comfortable and happy home for the homeless, providing themselves friends

to the friendless and take the best care of the sick, ministering in every way to the good of all in the home, and being a great blessing to the Community."

                                                           A HISTORY OF TAUNTON...SAMUEL HOPKINS EMERY

                                         96 Broadway today, renovated for a business.
                                           Are  there memories imbedded in those walls?

                                                         SOURCES FOR THIS POST:

           As always, thanks to Aaron Cushman, research librarian at the Taunton Public Library.
                   Taunton, MA. I loved that library as a child and treasure it still.

                Taunton Daily Gazette, Archives: Old Ladies' Home: Just a Piece of History:1969
                        Old Ladies' wouldn't Recognize the Place Now; Nov. 24, 1989.

........

Vintage Postcard of Old Ladies Home, Taunton, MA
http://www.uspostcards.com/Item/ma_taunton_0121
also see Facebook Page:Taunton,Ma-Postcard History
https://www.facebook.com/Taunton-MA-Postcard-History-138237093178247/timeline/

..........

The Ladies Repository:Vol. 35, Issues 3-6  Documents that a Mrs. King gave $5,000 to the Ladies' Home at an early date. 

https://books.google.com/books?id=lkjQAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA460&lpg=PA460&dq=old+ladies+home,+taunton,+ma'&source=bl&ots=LkfS-Cu5xO&sig=am-64ivogaVVIUKYKQd5poDybYo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEoQ6AEwCGoVChMIuvCFiuCryAIVgZIeCh0OwAm8#v=onepage&q=old%20ladies%20home%2C%20taunton%2C%20ma'&f=false

                                                                         .........

                                                     Lists of Old Ladies' Homes in the U.S.
                             http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wdstock/old11.htm
                           
                                                                            ........

  History of Taunton, Massachusetts from It's Settlement Until the Present Time (1880's) by Samuel  Hopkins Emery. If you are doing any type of Taunton history, this is an excellent source. Samuel  Emery was a minister and provides an excellent history.  Now out of print, it is available free online.

            https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=iqsvAQAAMAAJ&rdid=book-     iqsvAQAAMAAJ&rdot=1

............

The Social Welfare History Project from 1877 to 1893.

http://www.socialwelfarehistory.com/eras/civil-war-reconstruction/charity-organization-societies-1877-1893/

...............

Taunton City Directory: 1899 pg. 392

https://books.google.com/books?id=dewCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA392&lpg=PA392&dq=the+taunton+female+charitable+association&source=bl&ots=leZCME3jEU&sig=m9ILvurJ_ICBf6sbukEVthZ6b0s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDIQ6AEwCDgKahUKEwiwgb7iy5zIAhWCth4KHXZYCww#v=onepage&q=the%20taunton%20female%20charitable%20association&f=false

.................

Women Anti-Suffragegists in the 1915 Campaign.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/364357?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

.................

The Graham Old Ladies' Home in Brooklyn, New York.

http://forgotten-ny.com/2012/11/a-home-for-old-ladies-and-other-people/

WANT GREAT LONGEVITY AND HEALTH? LIVE IN A VILLAGE

This past May, the Wall St. Journal published this article:WANT GREAT LONGEVITY AND HEALTH? IT TAKES A VILLAGE. For me, now a very grown-up Villager, it was fascinating reading. It was easy to make comparisons to The School Street Village of my youth. Also, I know of at least two School Street women who have reached 100 years of age. One is my Aunt by marriage who lived in the Village in her early married life, she had married my Uncle who was been born there.  The other grew up in the Village and until recently spent all her life there.

The subtitle of the article in the WSJ is "To make it to 100: plenty of community, exercise, beans."

In our School Street Village, elders were honored and lived as fully integrated members of their extended families and the Village as a whole.  Most every child I knew as I grew up had a grandmother or grandfather living with them. Those were not the days of Nursing Homes as we know them today.

The WSJ article focuses on a series of Villages in Sardinia which boasts 21 centenarians for every 10,000 people.  Only about 4 in 10,000 Americans make it that far.  These Villages are part of what scientists and physicians call "Blue Zones" around the world where there is far less chronic illness and a longer life span. Below is the cover photograph for the article.

One of the cornerstones, says the article, of dietary issues is the humble bean.  Portuguese people love beans, especially the fava bean.  Beans are inexpensive, easy to grow, and can be cooked with a variety of meats. Meats, though, do not account for large servings but accentuate the bean. When my grandmother Isobel was a child in St. Miguel she earned money for the family by working in the bean fields.

But, the dietary issues were not alone in explaining longevity and health status.  A hallmark of the Villages was their closeness.  Remember some time ago, I mentioned that in the School Street Village, women who grew up in the same Villages in the Azores or Madeira would gather to bake their bread together?  So here in Sardinia where 5 generations of a family would get together to share their knowledge and experience in bread making and pass it on.  But, the women in Sardinia did more, they chopped the wood and stoked the ovens. Perhaps, in the Azores and Madeira our grandmothers and great-grandmothers might  have done the same.  But,  did you ever try kneading bread with your hands and arms...without the help of a food processor?  Who needs Pilates if you are doing that for 45 minutes?

Here is one of our School Street Villagers from probably the 40's or 50's kneading bread. Her home was on Floral St. and she is sitting in the doorway of her summer kitchen working the dough. I love the intense expression on her face as her hands expertly turned and forced the dough into food to feed her family.  Tradition carried from her original Village in the Azores or Madeira went into this simple act.

Life in these Sardinian Villages was/is very social, and that is where the big similarity comes in with my School Street Village.  Our elders (I smile because our grandparents were probably younger than I am now) had their own social strata.  These women  would roam the Village, walking in sturdy shoes and in the summer perhaps their distinctive cover-all aprons. They would walk to a friend's house and sitting in the kitchen, or perhaps the porch would share stories of their childhoods or what was happening in their circle currently.  My grandmother and her friends (sometimes a grandfather ) would spend hours like that, breaking out in laughter, maybe even tears and sighs.  Then the visitor would gather her big black pocketbook and be off to the next house.  They did not need stair masters (sometimes it was a second or third floor climb) or a treadmill.  The would often gather at our Church.  Church was a great place to meet and greet for our elders. Wakes always provided another occasion.

The next photograph is my Nana Delphina  (left) and two of her friends back in the 50's visiting in our family home on School Street.  The lovely lady in the middle often visited my Grandmother.  They were both from Madeira. This lady lived with her son and his family down a very significant hill. She would have been into pretty good exercise going back and forth on her visits.  My grandmother (as I mentioned elsewhere) was sort of a Village secretary to the elders. Often they could not read their letters and she would do it for them, or help them write back. She would perch her hat on her head, gather her bulky handbag with her supplies and set off.  It would take her quite a while as she would meet and chat with other friends on other porches along the way.

I noticed on the WSJ newspaper photo: the hair pulled simply back in a neat bun. These elders, there and in my Village had no time for hair stylists, nor for shopping sprees. Neither the time, nor the money.  Anyway, their days were too full of social events. A sweater thrown over a shoulder was enough to go chat over a neighborhood fence or during an evening walk.

Some statistics from the WSJ- "In the U.S.you are likely to die eight years earlier if you are lonely compared with those with strong social networks."   The article goes on to say that in those villages in Sardinia, "...parents and grandparents move serenely into old age, secure in the knowledge that their children will care for them." Like our parents and grandparents in the Village, there were/are no treadmills, health gyms, dietary counseling organizations. A robust, active life took care of all that. My mother spent time cooking, hanging clothes on the line in all kinds of weather and then picking them afterward, gardening,  canning and sewing...and on and on.  When I say gardening I mean Gardening with a capital G. Putting up grape juice and grape and blueberry jam, cooking pies in big batches so that they were available all winter (and entertaining the friends of her four children). My grandmother had her walking/secretarial route, she washed and ironed and delivered (on foot) the altar linens for our Church for years and years. She made her way to wakes and funerals of friends gone before her. That meant a long afternoon at the wake socializing and remembering the dear deceased. The WSJ write-up stated that every 20 minutes the folks in Sardinian villages were nudged into physical activity.

It seemed then as in the Sardinian villages that there was no rancor that an elder grandparent lived with the family of a son or daughter.  It just was expected and normal.  As children were cherished, our elders were cherished.

No over the counter supplement can substitute for family.  When my elderly mother-in-law knew that her health was deteriorating and she lived alone, she decided to go into a Nursing Home right in her town.  She was one of 14 children.  Though her failing mind was slipping, one or another of her siblings came every single day, most days taking her to lunch, or just for a ride around her beloved neighborhood. She was always part of the family she knew and loved.  Her children were there as well, cherishing her and motivating her to share her many stories, and just to love her.  Love makes the difference, and faces that are so often there it becomes hard to forget them.


My husband and I are far from family (thankful for Facebook cell phones, etc.) but we are blessed. We live on a small island off the coast of northeastern Florida.  Small island - tight friendships and support groups.  Our new parish has become a haven for many of us seniors, our talents are appreciated, our voices are heard. Happily, technology helps us all to stay connected and sometimes (wow) a written note gives us delight and connectedness.

We in the USA and perhaps elsewhere are part of a throw-away culture...too often elders find themselves in just that situation.  Growing up in the School Street Village, I learned as a small child as I was passed from the arms of one Aunt to another with loving hugs, that it is cherishing that we all need- from one end of our lives to another.


                Funny, back then, nobody thought of retiring and leaving for another place.


                                                         
                                                                         SOURCES:
                                                       The Wall Street Journal Article:
        http://www.wsj.com/articles/want-great-longevity-and-health-it-takes-a-village-1432304395

                                       
                                  Related Past Posts on this subject you may find interesting:

http://schoolstvillage.blogspot.com/2013/09/village-healthy-part-i.html

http://schoolstvillage.blogspot.com/2013/09/village-health-part-iii.html

http://schoolstvillage.blogspot.com/2013/10/village-healthy-part-iv-beloved-family.html

AN ODE TO THE GARDENS OF PORTUGUESE GRANDFATHERS

In the past I have written of School Street Village gardens and how they held memory roots of forgotten days.  It must have been some sort of prescience because along came the experience for this post.

When we researched a place to stay this past June, the web photos of the garden at 49 Oliver St. in Bristol  attracted us.  When we arrived there it was even more than we had imagined! Soft immersion into the Portuguese culture of Bristol.  In the way of a Portuguese garden it held a lovely story that soon was uncovered.  This post is about that story.

Someone wrote me that it confused him that I was not writing about the School Street Village in Taunton.  Ah, but this is a sister Village still vibrant in its Portuguese culture and heritage - it charmed and delighted this old Portuguese soul.  It will do that for you, too.  It enlarges our heritage as every new story does.

When I was growing up in my own Village, there were elderly grandfather gentleman tending the back gardens of School Street. I never knew my grandfathers, so these gentle people struck my imagination and carved out a niche there.

The Portuguese immigrants who came to America carried the planting gene in their DNA. They added new information and plantings and succeeded in accomplishing lush and fertile gardens where they grew most of their own food.  The title of Master Gardener was not invented then, but I believe those gardeners, and their progeny were and are way ahead of that title.

 In their bib overalls and soft crunched hats they tended their crops of corn, cabbage, kale and more . There was such a Grandfather Gardener right next door to us at my childhood home in the Village in Taunton in the early 1950's : Mr Costa.  Quietly with gnarled hands the earth is tilled into the soil and the soil returns the favor worked by touch and remembrance.  Portuguese gardens have pride of place, they always did. They anchor the home, softens its trials and sorrows. The garden has seen it all.  He tended the green acreage that was for him a reminder of the Portuguese home he had left behind, the Mother Garden as it were.  He also had a flock of chickens.  Their little shed nestled up to our grapevine and the chain link fence between our house and his.

   The photo above is of the back of 184 School Street before we moved there in 1952.  My cousin Beverly and my Aunt Alveda refresh themselves on a sunny day probably in the late 40's . Directly in back of the fence is their field of corn and other vegetables, the higher corn next door is the Costa planting area.  These parallel gardens of crops lined the back yards of many School Street Village homes. It felt good to see those same kind of back gardens
along the Portuguese Village area of Bristol.

The soft clucking of Mr. Costa's hens in their little house next door formed a musical theme to the backdrop of my childhood.  Remember the fences on either side of our house had gates in them and were the right height for neighbors to lean on and chat. We were linked: by heritage, by green gardens, and friendship.

This Bristol story now takes my heritage memory to a whole new level.  For at 49 Oliver St., I came upon something so close to those memories that it awakened all the others.

Introducing Luis Oliveira.   I almost need not say more, this painting of Mr. Oliveira speaks volumes.  In the painting, he is holding the corn stalks he grew to make brooms, still grown in his garden today.  He is the picture of a Portuguese Grandfather gardener.  The painting hangs in the kitchen of the apartment where he and his family once lived.  That is now a rental apartment but it is unchanged since the days he raised his family there.
 It is utterly charming. 

We came home with stalks like this, a perfect souvenir.

Mr. Oliveira was more than just a gardener, he was a beloved mentor. A native of the Azores, he brought with him the traditions and  knowledge he had grown up learning.  Mr. Oliveira became the father-in-law of Mr. Ed Castro and the garden became their classroom. Eventually, it passed to the Castro couple and it has been lovingly tended over the past 50 years with love for this mentor and for the heritage that the garden still is today.

                                            Mr. Oliveira and Mr. Castro in the Garden
                                                         taken some years ago.



 In time, with his knowledge and experience, Ed and his father-in-law opened the heritage garden, now a place of magic greenery, to groups of school children.  Hosting 60 first and second graders from where his wife was a teacher's aide he added to their own memories.  Each child was given a small kale plant to plant in the garden before they left, their own tiny heritage plant. Adult visitors would often take home one of Mr. Oliveira's small brooms. Those brooms, by the way, apparently lasted years and years.

At that time, at the age of 87, Luis Oliveira still  went out back to his garden at 5:30 each morning until the day became too warm. He returned in the cool of the evening. He had done all the work in the vineyards in his home in the Azores. His favorite shady spot in Bristol was his grapevine arbor.  Today, long after he passed away, his son-in-law keeps up the garden with the help of another grandfatherly gentleman who tends the kale, fava beans and more while dreaming his own bygone dreams of home.  I found him there one morning and he softly bid me good morning, his accent music to my ears.

                                                           The garden at 49 Oliver St.


It was to this apartment and garden that my husband and I came while on a trip to New England,  We stayed for 10 days.  Each day was a gift, a blessing.  The garden was a place where we could sit in the shade, serenaded by the many birds who found shelter and food there, be entertained by the small cat whose garden was his home away from home and listen to the music of the koi fountain.  What is a Portuguese garden without a cat? We could listen to pots and pans being readied for the evening meal and the song of children playing in a nearby playground.

I often sketched there, photographed the flowers, the Azores vegetables and of course, the cat.  There, too, I photographed our family and friends when they visited. The garden gifted us each day with new memories layered on to the new...memories of another Village, not too far away but for the years.

Now for a treat: Rhode Island Public Radio did a web slideshow of the garden which includes a photo of Mr. and Mrs. Castro and photos of the garden,  It was posted Oct. 12, 2013 by Emma Roddick who probably took the wonderful photos. Some of the photos are in this post. You can see more photographs and play the audio to get a full appreciation for this very special place.

                            http://ripr.org/post/one-square-mile-portuguese-gardens-bristol


The best trips are those that keep dancing in your memory.  Such memories come with feelings of rest, of beauty, of family and friends and in this case, memories of faith. Who would think.. one rents a space and finds a treasure. Many, many thanks to the Castro family, for their friendship and their sharing. We will return!

                                                              

                                                    Sources for this Post                

- Memories shared by Mr. and Mrs. Castro

           

-Above cited Slideshow from Rhode Island Public Radio archives.

-Providence Journal, June 22, 1997 "One Square Mile: The Portuguese Gardens of Bristol"

-Bristol Phoenix, Aug. 18, 2005  Home Section: "Mentoring Grows New Gardeners"