1964 Class Notes for 2021

What a whirlwind we have been through in the past fifteen-plus months as the world was figuring out COVID-19! Lysol everything – no, just wash your hands regularly. Wear a mask – no, the front line people need them – no, they need N95, you should wear any three-ply. And finally the vaccine rollout, a passport to normalcy someday very soon. Thanks be to God, and to all those whose hard work brings that normalcy closer.

I heard of only one infection among our classmates’ families. Mary Fanning Broderick’s husband Frank developed COVID just before Christmas, so the holiday went from uninspiring to bleak. They were able to isolate on separate floors of their house, and Frank is now well and vaccinated. Mary’s to-do list has grown despite isolation – no genealogy, decluttering, photo sorting. But she walks daily, has a Zoom book club, and is hoping for an in-person graduation ceremony for her grandson in June.

Gail Fogarty and Carol Glavin at dinner after attending the Boston Ballet.

I must declare Gail Higgins Fogarty the official photographer of this issue of our news, as well as the champion of mini-reunions with classmates. She sent me almost a dozen photos of about two dozen of you, all identified by event and attendee. Pictures really enhance the report, so I thank you profoundly, Gail.

64 Jersey Gathering

The Jersey Shore Reunion in July 2019 started events. Gail visited Peggy Ann Clark Schwartz and Bob, in NJ, then attended a dinner hosted by Ann Marie Catanzaro Di Lorenzo in Allenhurst, and a luncheon at the Avon home of Mary Lou Heck Farmer. Other guests were Ann McGee Gillespie, Mary Mazzucca, Lorraine Noe Bergkvist, Priscilla Murphy Ryan, Marianna Santoro Noto, and Anne Glennon.

Maura Geens Tyrell (second from left) experiences Providence WaterfireFestival with Gail Higgins Fogarty(far right), a friend of Gail’s and Maura’s daughter.

Back home, Gail introduced Maura Geens Tyrrell and Maura’s daughter Sarah to the Providence WaterFire Festival, a beautiful celebration of arts, music, boat rides and lights along the Three Providence rivers. She had a summer visit with her sisters including Carol Higgins Aultman. Gail attended her 50th reunion from Georgetown Law, and while in DC she hosted a dinner at the University Club with Juanita Mullaire Cullen, Mimi Conway, Mary Beth Jacobs, and Cathy Kane Epatko. In the fall she also invited Betty Condon and Carol Glavin Warren to different performances of the Boston Ballet, and this was all before COVID closed the world down!

Classmates Juanita Mulaire Cullen, Gail Higgins Fogarty, Mimi Conway, and Mary Beth Jacobs celebrate Gail’s 50th Reunion from Georgetown Law School at the University Club. 

Betty Condon and Gail Fogarty at the Boston Ballet.

Mary Lou Heck Farmer and family-Christmas 2020.

Mary Lou Farmer is sharing an early release of her 2021 Christmas card. To celebrate her birthday, their anniversary and Yuletide, husband Greg surprised her by arranging for the house to be professionally decorated for Christmas 2020. In order to share it, the Farmers created “COVID-19 Lite Entertaining”, entertaining two people at a time for snacks and drinks 15 feet apart.

Lee and Mary Donnelly Kaser, erstwhile travelers extraordinaire, did enjoy one trip in January 2020. They spent three days touring Miami, Key West and Everglades National Park, and then cruised the Caribbean on the gigantic Oasis of the Seas, which holds 9000 people. Once home in COVID isolation, there were many new experiences – Instacart for groceries, church services on Facebook, meetings and classes on Zoom, take-out and delivery instead of restaurant dining, family visits electronically. Spring storms uprooted a 75 foot maple tree in their yard, but Mary, a talented gardener, had the area re-landscaped within a month.

Short and sweet greetings arrived from Mike Connolly Egan, wishing us all an early and healthy spring, and from Mary DiMartino Mazzuca sending wishes for good holidays and health.

Kelly Snider Dunn found the slower pace to my life was mostly a blessing as she savored relationships albeit at a distance, appreciated the ordinary moments of joy and had time for neglected projects and activities. In October she and Carol Warren had an outdoor lunch on the patio of Rosemary Dies Haverland’s summer home in Little Compton RI. Rosemary spends the winter in FL, but RI has the advantage of nearby grandchildren, including a new granddaughter (number 8) born in June. Sharon LaMonte Charde and John also visited Rosemary, and Sharon moderated an afternoon of readings and discussion of her new book with the Haverland’s friends.

Isolation has been sweetened for Diane Chesley-Lahm thanks to a bimonthly Zoom chat group centered on her freshman year dorm neighbors. They have supported and entertained each other through the pandemic. Members include Alice Meehan Clement, Kit Lane Dodge, MaryLou Duffy Corrigan, Marcie Grant Dahlen, Helen Mitchell, and Maura Tyrell. Kay Carmody Williams was also a part of the group until her death in November 2020 from a recurrence of cancer. Diane remembers her old roommate as a fun and substantial person who will be greatly missed, and is grateful for the time they were able to share before her illness overcame her. We send our profound sympathy to Kay’s family.

Diane mentions her other pastimes, including “provision gathering”; I assume that means grocery shopping, not foraging in the woods for nuts and berries. Her passion has become quilting, and she has won several blue ribbons including first place in wall hangings at the juried invitational Bob Evans Annual Quilt Show. The beautiful pieced and appliqued quilt is called Woodland Spirits. Congratulations, Diane.

Patty Shiels Carr ’64 (left) on a DC road trip with her sisters.

Patty Shiels Carr enjoyed a Girls Weekend in DC with her sisters and nieces just before the pandemic restrictions were imposed. Back at home, she is working for a caterer who provides meals for take-out, a first-hand look at the impact of COVID on a small business.

Pat Sheehan Gill and family at Disney World

Also finding new activities is Pat Sheehan Gill, who has donated several albums of completed Adult Coloring pictures to local retirement homes. She also enjoys oil painting and reading. As things have opened up recently, she and John have been able to return to tennis and softball, Pat to acting as Eucharistic Minister, and both to hosting a family trip to Disney World in February 2021.

Kathy Nealon Piva mused on the changing perception of isolation. At the beginning, she felt as if it were a chance to take stock and reboot, but as time goes on she worries about the emotional effects of isolation and uncertainty, especially on her grandchildren’s generation. Like most of us by now, Kathy is fully vaccinated but with restrictions still in place, she feels “all dressed up with no place to go.”

Ruth Woerner Kastenmayer reports that after several tumultuous years she is happily settled in an independent living apartment at the Colonnades in VA. Like many others, she found a silver lining in the pandemic restrictions, which gave her time for quiet reflection and centering.

Fran DuRocher ’64 and Siggi Moser, quintessential pandemic portrait.

The usually crowded lives of Fran DuRocher and Siggi were abruptly curtailed by COVID isolation. Their masked Christmas photo is an appropriate hallmark for this year. Zoom has become the lifeline to church, distant friends, and discussion groups. For the first time Thanksgiving was virtual instead of with Fran’s family in RI, and Christmas was celebrated with Siggi’s German family via Jitsi. Their Christmas outside lights remain on to express hope, compassion, and a desire that the world before us not be so dark. Sadly, Siggi has recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is undergoing treatment. Their many friends are helping with transportation to appointments and other support. We are praying for you both, Fran.

Spring arrives early in NM, and Linda Hardesty Ring has me green with envy at her rapturous description of sun, bluebirds, and wildlife meandering through her back yard. She and Dennis were fortunate enough to enjoy a Rhine River cruise in 2019, but plans for a Swiss rail journey had to be put on hold. Linda misses hugging, pedicures, regular haircuts, and normal (not crack-of-dawn-for-seniors) store hours, but is grateful for the many social media platforms to keep in touch and for on-line retail outlets and libraries. The Rings have been using isolation to update their 30 year old house and plan new spring landscaping. Before the pandemic, Linda had been lunching often with Mary Ann Brady, who lives nearby, and incidentally is Dennis’ cousin. She keeps in touch by phone and text with Marie Sheehy Klemann and Rosita Torregrosa Bachmann.

Sharon LaMont Charde writes: I am sorry I missed the opportunity to contribute to the class notes; it has been an incredible year for me. Mango Publishing published my book, “I Am Not a Juvenile Delinquent; How Poetry Changed a Group of At-Risk Young Women,” about my years of volunteering with delinquent girls in a facility –getting them to write their stories in poetry form–also creating a program with a local, elite private school so all the girls could write together–and how it helped me to heal from the grief over my lost son, to carry it differently. I spent the pandemic time doing countless Zoom interviews and talks to publicize it–all on my website–pretty immersed in this big job, since the publisher does almost nothing to help. Thanks to those of you who attended some of the talks! Blue Light Press will publish my next poetry collection in September, “The Glass Is Already Broken.” I had a wonderful writing residency at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, but had to fly home in the middle of March–I’m heading back in September and looking forward to it!

Kate Sullivan Ryan and coach Max share the mat during a virtual yoga class.

For me the pandemic year (and counting!) was one of contrasts. I saw first-hand the physical and emotional toll taken on first responders, as my daughter Liz is a respiratory therapist at Boston Medical Center, caring for the most endangered patients. My only contribution was to provide doggy day care for her when her provider shut down from March to September. Choir and my three theater subscriptions were cancelled. Church attendance, yoga and other exercise classes were all virtual. A trip to the grocery store became an outing. Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas 2020 saw my usually crammed dinner table with zero or one or two guests widely spread out. There were few accomplishments other than surviving. I did clean out file drawers and kitchen cabinets, and after five months of no hair appointments embraced the natural look and am now sporting a white pixie haircut.

Easter 2021 was truly a resurrection, thanks to the vaccine rollout. I attended all Holy Week services in person. My immediate family, almost all vaccinated, were able to gather for dinner, and hug. Sitting outside was again possible after the long winter; I had an outdoor restaurant lunch with a vaccinated friend. Hallelulia!

Thanks to those who donated to our class fund. For those who still wish to give, you can make your check payable to AATC 1964 Class Fund, and mail directly to:

Alumnae Association of Trinity Washington University
125 Michigan Ave NE
Washington DC 20017-1094

Love to you and yours, and wishes for a year filled with health and serenity.

Kate Sullivan Ryan, ‘64
Ryanks376@gmail.com

Addendum:

What a year!!! Incredible in so many fronts. Glad to be alive and in health. My prayers are with any of you who have struggled during this year as well as those who have lost loved ones and those who in spite of all events kept their sanity and humor.

2020 started beautifully for us with plans for trips Puerto Rico for class reunion Number 60, then to Ecuador, Galapagos and Peru, and later in the year to Thailand. Little did we know that Corona would have its own designs. Nonetheless in early February I had a ray of happy time with the visit to Denver of Kathy Nealon Piva. In the short hours we spent together we walked through memory lane with gusto. From then on, my husband and I sequestered ourselves to this day. Never complaining about our lack of contact with others and in turn expanding our horizons with gourmet cooking, lots of walks, and even some tent camping in the glorious mountains of Colorado during the summer.

2020 provided ample time for introspection; time to take stock of life and the future, and to tackle procrastinated tasks. All in all it was a good year. We are thankful for so much. Blessings to all. Rosita

Rosita Bachmann
cucufate1943@icloud.com