Tag: scribes

2021 Winter Alumnae Quarterly

1977

Scribes: Nancy Herman Jarrett and Andrea Popik Taber.

It’s hard to fathom that, once again, we are writing these notes amidst the continuing challenges of COVID-19. We hope that you and those close to you are well and coping through this incredibly taxing time.

Our enterprising and dynamic class president, Liz Lewis Gershon, has initiated a series of Zoom presentations/discussions which have included the two most important issues we face at present: the pandemic and the persistent racism which continues to cripple the country. Sue Echterling, an ED doctor, gave us a real-life account of what it is like to treat COVID-19 in a hospital, as well as tips to stay healthy. Deb Stone Roth outlined ways to practice self-care. Sandy Jones gave us fascinating information on the biology of skin color and Val Barr and Avice Meehan reported on how the College is dealing with the pandemic. In October, we had a “Celebration of the Arts” Zoom during which Simonne RoyAnn Reynolds and Nicky Mesiah taught us about painting views of Provence, composing Cuban jazz and baking yummy (and healthy!) goodies! Stay tuned for more Zoom meetings. They’re a wonderful way to “see” classmates and feel more connected to the class as well as the College. If you have ideas or a presentation that you would like to do over Zoom, please contact Merry Galassi Hampton (click here)

Residing in Oro Valley, AZ, since 2005, Helen Mitchell reports that she retired from the practice of anesthesiology in 2014 and has been an avid photographer and, until COVID, a docent at the AZ Sonora Desert Museum. She and her partner of 37 years have been mostly housebound for the past several months as the Bighorn wildfire destroyed Mt. Lemmon, their respite from the summer heat. They are looking forward to a socially-distanced get-away, hitting the road in an RV, accompanied by their 3 dogs.

Former scribe and current alumnae trustee, Avice Meehan, checked in from northwestern CT, where she is now living full time. Avice and spouse, Barbara Roberts, are simultaneously renovating their barn/house, a part-time home for the past 20-plus years, while trying to sell a NYC apartment. Having left Memorial Sloan-Kettering in 2019, Avice is currently doing pro bono consulting for a small family farm as well as for organizations focused on ending homelessness. In her spare time (hard to believe she has any!), she quilts, knits, sews couture and has made more than 300 masks.

Jan Plager’s job as a social worker went remote in early March, so she left her home in Weston, MA, to social distance with Ann Palermo Mc Cready and her family for a few weeks. Late March found her in Lenox helping her mother, whose housekeeper took a leave. Jan has found, even without Tanglewood, that her time in Lenox has been therapeutic and has (mostly) enjoyed spending lots of time with her mother!

Jules Dickinson has been sheltering in her home but regularly goes out to donate platelets at her local blood center. She reports doing “usual retirement pursuits” such as reading, watching Netflix and taking naps.  She is in a writing group of MHC alums and has had 2 poems published in the group’s anthology, “The Angled Road” (available on Amazon). In addition, her protest song, “Strong and Equal Women,” was recorded by Daniel Kelly on the Bandcamp album “Social Justice Warrior” and 7 of her haiku have been published on Janis Ian’s webpage, Godzilla Haiku.

From Lynn, MA, Betsy Coward Miller sends news of a promotion (simultaneous with entry into senior citizenship!) to fully tenured professor at Bunker Hill Community College, where she is chair of the computer science department. Her children live in Brooklyn, NY, and St. Petersburg, FL, and she celebrated her birthday with a Zoom call, which included her kids, siblings and nieces and nephews.

Eliza Smith Brown sent an extensive update including the sad news that her husband, Bill, passed away in June 2019 after battling cancer on and off, for more than 20 years. Support from friends and family, as well as 36 years of memories have provided much needed sustenance and comfort.  Eliza had a brush with breast cancer last spring which is, thankfully, behind her. Her 3 adult kids, Will, Brendan and Regina, are thriving. Eliza quit her job with the Association of Theological Schools to focus on a book project about her grandmother and her sister, 2 Vassar graduates who led the suffrage movement in Pittsburgh and PA and then went on to fight corruption in local government for the next 40 years. The book, “She Devils at the Door,” was not finished at the time Eliza sent her news but she has an author’s website (elizasmithbrown.com), which provides great information! Eliza sees Cathy Counselman Kelly ’78 in Pittsburgh and a visit from her college roommate, Vanieta Canonico Jahn, in Aug. 2019 was a huge treat!

Our reunion co-chairs, Susan Granahan Colgan and Janet O’Neil Connell have already started brainstorming some wonderful ideas for our 45th! We remain optimistic that we will all be able to be together on campus by June 2022 and we hope you are planning to join in the fun!

We want to share that a new Class Communications Committee has been formed to create and manage the myriad forms of communication now available to us. Look for a new class website which will provide faster dissemination of news and enable greater connections with the class, as a whole. Along the connections line, please go to the Alumnae Association database and ensure that your information (phone number and email address) is up to date so that you don’t miss out on all of these opportunities! We’ve included the link here: alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/directory.

 

Permanent link to this article: https://new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/1977/2021/01/18/2021-winter-quarterly/

2020 Summer Alumnae Quarterly

1977  

Scribes: Nancy Herman Jarrett and Andrea Popik Taber

As I (Andi) sit and write these notes in April, I can’t help but wonder what the world will be like when this is published this summer. Will the pandemic be over? Will our lives have resumed at least some sense of normalcy?  Summer seems very far away and, of course, everything is a big unknown. So for now, we pray that you and your families and friends are well. That all who have been affected by this pernicious virus have recovered, physically, mentally, economically, and in every other possible way.

From WY, Sylvia Miller Hackl writes that she is still handling prisoner litigation for the US District Court and also studying to be a registered investment advisor. Her legal career has included working as state public defender, chief deputy attorney general, deputy county attorney, city attorney, and legal counsel for a hospital, all in Cheyenne. She is living with her daughter and still able to go to her office since there are very few people there. Sylvia is happy to reconnect with MHC since it has been 15 years since she joined the Alumnae Glee Club trip to England and Wales!

Sending news for the first time, Debra Wilson reports that until 2017 she lived in NYC, working first for Rolling Stone Magazine. Later she was briefly in advertising and then attended law school. Rather than practicing law, Debra gravitated toward teaching and taught in Asia for 3 years. She then moved back to NYC, where she received a teaching fellowship and obtained a master’s degree. For 13 years Debra taught special education in an underserved school in Brooklyn, during which time she married and adopted a son from Russia. She writes that Ari has a number of challenges but has made tremendous strides, both literally and metaphorically. Debra retired in 2016, divorced in 2017, and moved, with her son to NC to be closer to family. She bought property in the country and built a single-wide mobile home. Life experiences include climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, riding horses in Mongolia, trekking in Uganda to observe mountain gorillas and volunteer teach, and traveling to India and Nepal. Debra writes that while she has struggled mightily, she has come to understand that the lows in life just make the highs that much sweeter. Good food for thought!

Ellen Coulter reports that she and her husband of 32 years, Scott Hutton, are retired and loving their freedom. Unfortunately, the current pandemic has temporarily curtailed their planned travel. Ellen writes that prior to moving to CO in 1983, she lived in New Orleans, where she first worked at a luxury hotel in the French Quarter and waited on, among others, Mick Jagger, Mohamed Ali and Don King. She also got to see live performances by Harry Connick Jr. and others. New Orleans has been hit hard by COVID-19, and Ellen was heartbroken to hear of the death of some of her friends there. In 1983 Ellen moved to CO, where she became a paralegal, ultimately retiring a few years ago from LexisNexis. Ellen writes that in Colorado Springs people are being cautious but are still able to go hiking and to stores. She chats periodically with Rosemary McCue, and has FB chats with other MHC friends, especially those with whom she shared the North Rocky basement freshman year.

Mary Stevens writes that she has been sheltering in Nashville, TN, since mid-March. She hadn’t been going out much even before that, but now is missing her daily therapy swim. Her husband is retired from Vanderbilt’s English department, but Mary is still helping to review applications for Vanderbilt’s undergraduate admissions office. Mary’s sons live in NYC and Boston. One is an actor, whose restaurant job vanished weeks ago. One daughter-in-law is a nurse, and the other is 8 months pregnant, so those are the ones she worries most about. Because Nashville is a fairly suburban city, Mary reports that they can socially distance by staying in their own yards. Her street started a daily check-in that has grown into a nightly social hour, with people gathering in a huge (distanced) circle in front of one of the houses, bringing drinks and stools, and catching up for ½ hour or so. Mary has heard from MHC roommate Deb Burnham Mackey and can tell from Facebook that Devon Miller Duggan “is alive and well!”

Carol Davis Jackson writes from Dallas, TX, that she has retired after serving as a PhD educator in elementary schools and universities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Since then she has enjoyed being an active part of the MHC DFW club. Their book group, comprised of a multi-generational group of alumnae, meets regularly at the home of Karen Wilbur ’68 and Dorie Crenshaw ’73. Carol also enjoys experiencing the world of art with Lillian (Lily) Williams ’18, who has led the club’s tours at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Arlington Museum of Art, where she is employed.

Susan Saxe sends greetings from NYC, where she has been in self-isolation for 30 days with her daughter Juliana (Hampshire ’22). They have groceries delivered to their door and have not left their apartment, except to go to the building lobby to retrieve mail or takeout. Juliana is participating in virtual classes and Susan is pursuing her consulting work at home and is amazed at how easily 30 days have slipped by. She is concerned about her mother, who lives alone and is managing nicely (and amazingly continues to produce a daily word game which is syndicated to newspapers around the world), but they both miss their weekly visits. Susan is also sad to have missed the chance to be back on campus for the graduation of her niece Emily Damon ’20. Nevertheless, “I recognize how incredibly lucky I am to be safe and I wish the same to all.”

Sue Rittenhouse Sokoloski checked in from Hartford, CT. She semi-retired in 2017, and fully retired last year from her career as a life insurance company medical director, a job she describes as “half-way between being a doctor and a business person.” Both daughters also live in New England, and Sue and her husband Tom now have 2 grandsons, with a 3rd on the way. They are keeping in touch with them and others via Zoom, Skype and FaceTime, much as the rest of the country is doing. Sue had a fun time meeting up via Zoom with MHC friends to celebrate Sandy Jones’s birthday. She described it as “a bright spot in an otherwise dark time in our world.” Sue is looking forward to getting out on their sailboat this summer, and hoping that favorite New England ports will be open for business and welcoming to cruisers.

Finally, Gerri Carr writes that she and husband Rob are sheltering in Chevy Chase, MD, with 2 of their 3 sons. One has been furloughed from a vet clinic job. The other accepted an offer from Deloitte. Son #3 is managing a restaurant and self-isolating in his own home. Life had already changed for Gerri in 2017 when her husband was diagnosed with a chronic disease and unexpectedly had to retire. They have traveled extensively in the past 2 years and had just returned from Eastern Europe on Feb. 21. The customs officer asked about travel to China but failed to inquire about interactions with groups of Chinese tourists or anything else! Gerri is spending time readying their home of 20 years for sale and connecting with classmates and others via Facebook and Zoom. She feels lucky that nobody in her immediate family has fallen ill.

As Gerri put it, we are all experiencing a mix of conflicting emotions: happiness, anxiety and terror. But, as she said, isolation is a small price to pay if it means others will live. I know we also all join Gerri in giving a shout-out and thank you to Sue Echterling for her service in the ER, as well as to all our other MHC classmates and sisters who are healthcare professionals, government leaders, or other essential workers who are selflessly working to keep us healthy and fed, and who are researching ways to defeat this terrible virus. Stay safe, everybody!

Contact our Scribes by clicking here

Permanent link to this article: https://new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/1977/2020/07/12/2020-summer-alumnae-quarterly/