 PRESIDENT'S LETTER
Hello,
Wow, it is hard to believe that it has been a year since Covid hit. Like many of you, we are quite focused on the vaccine. We share both your frustration in making an appointment and your elation when you get one! It may not feel like it yet, but we will get there!
In the meantime, AN is changing and growing. At our Board Retreat, new board members and old spent time together, clarifying and prioritizing for 2021. We will be focusing on our volunteer services, on making ours a truly diverse, inclusive, and welcoming organization, and on getting the word out about everything we are doing. In the meantime, we will continue to offer our varied and interesting programs on Zoom. If you have ideas for programs that you would like to lead or attend, please let us know.
If you happen to be reading our newsletter for the first time, we sure hope you will decide to come join the fun, connection, and opportunities for aging well in community that Amherst Neighbors offers! You can give us a call at (413) 345-2555, email us at amherstneighbors01002@gmail.com or join online at www.amherstneighbors.org.
I am very excited to be taking the helm as the new president of Amherst Neighbors. After seeing how much we have grown since our initial conversation three years ago, I am very excited to get to know all of you better. With our services just around the bend and our ever-growing programs, I am also eager to meet others who have yet to join. Please let your friends and neighbors know about Amherst Neighbors as we become an even more vital part of our community.
--Caroline Lederman, Amherst Neighbors President
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For an interview with Caroline Lederman and a retrospective interview with outgoing President Liz Welsh, as well as some Amherst Neighbors history, click here or read on to find the interviews below.
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Spring---and vaccines—bring hope for better days ahead. Photos: Sue Katz
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AMHERST NEIGHBORS NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
 SERVICES COMMITTEE
Amherst Neighbors is happy to announce that we are launching our “Covid-Safe” volunteer services at the beginning of April.
These will include curbside pickup and other errands, dog walking, Zoom and virtual computer support, light yard work, and friendly calls. Some of our volunteers are also offering to be walking companions (outdoors, wearing masks, and at a six-foot distance). In other words, our volunteers will be able to assist with a variety of things, so long as those things can be done safely and outside of a car or a home. These services will be available to any Amherst Neighbors member who is 55 or older. If you aren't sure if you are a member or would like to join, please email us at amherstneighbors01002@gmail.com or call us at (413) 345-2555.
Please keep your eye out for an email from Amherst Neighbors at the beginning of April for an announcement of the launch and more details as to how the Covid-Safe volunteer services will work. If you have questions or would like help filling out an application for services, please call us at (413) 345-2555.
And please, do let us know if you would like to be an Amherst Neighbors services volunteer! We have scheduled upcoming orientations to get all of us ready. For an online volunteer application, go to www.amherstneighbors.org and click on “Why Volunteer” at the top of the page. Or, if you prefer a paper application, write to us at amherstneighbors01002@gmail.com.
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Other volunteer opportunities with Amherst Neighbors
We are also looking for volunteers who would like to help with fundraising and with continuing to develop our website. If you are interested in helping in either of these areas, or if you would like to explore becoming involved with one of our working committees, please contact Caroline Lederman at amherstneighbors01002@gmail.com.
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Spring Crosuses. Photo: Ellen Dickinson
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PROGRAMS COMMITTEE
Amherst Neighbors is pleased to announce the start of a new program, the First Thursday Speaker Series. Each month on the first Thursday, a speaker will present a talk on ideas, events, and new developments of broad interest to the Amherst-Pelham community. For now, of course, the presentations will be held on Zoom.
Launching our series on the first Thursday in May, Brooke Steinhauser will offer an Armchair Tour of the Emily Dickinson Museum. Program Director of the Museum for six years, Steinhauser oversees visitor experience and public programming. This program will include an illustrated talk about the life and times of Amherst's most beloved poet and a virtual exploration of the historic Homestead where she was born in 1830, where she died in 1886, and where she produced her life's work of nearly 2000 poems. Along the way, participants will get a sneak peek into the Museum's ongoing work to restore the Homestead to its 1850s appearance and to preserve the Evergreens next door, a nineteenth-century time capsule that was home to Dickinson's brother and his family.
This Armchair Tour will be offered on Thursday May 6, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm. To attend, click here, click on the event, and follow the directions to register. A Zoom link will be sent to registered participants close to date of the event.
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For a continually updated listing of ALL of our Amherst Neighbors Program offerings, including book discussions, a poetry interest sharing group, a chance to chat with Amherst Neighbors’ new President, and a program about area walking trails, click here.
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FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE
Amherst Neighbors is committed to serving all older adults in our community. For this reason, membership is free and we do not charge for any of our programs or services.
Our ability to continue and expand our work depends on donations from members and community organizations. If you can help, please donate here or send a check to Amherst Neighbors, P.O. Box 3428, Amherst, MA 01004.
If you have ideas for other sources of possible funding or would like to assist with fundraising, please contact Caroline Lederman at amherstneighbors01002@gmail.com.
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AMHERST NEIGHBORS RESOURCES
Our Amherst Neighbors website includes links to area programs and services, print materials, and COVID resources that may be of interest to our members. To access the Resources page, click here, then click on the Helpful Links tab.
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Being outside has helped many of us get through a tough year.
Photos: Gary Tartakov, left, Sue Katz, right
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FEATURE ARTICLES
The authors of the two articles below would like to offer a BIG thanks to the seventeen Amherst and Pelham neighbors who so generously shared their time, experiences, and thoughts about coping or “Zooming” with us.
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COPING AND "WELLNESS" IN THE TIME OF COVID
Ellen Dickinson and Jane Mildred
The question “How are you doing?” has come to hold new meaning in the past year and, for many of us, a simple “I’m fine” may no longer feel like an adequate response. In fact, our well-being has become such a major topic of conversation in many of our encounters lately that the Amherst Neighbors Newsletter Committee decided it was time to address the issues of “coping” and “wellness.” To this end, we checked in with a small but diverse group of people in our local older adult community to find out how and what they were doing to cope with the consequences of the pandemic and to stay as well as possible in these difficult times.
There are many different ways to define “wellness,” but we especially liked one that we found in a surprising (and timely) place—the website of the pharmaceutical company, and vaccine producer, Pfizer. This site describes wellness as “the act of practicing healthy habits on a daily basis to attain better physical and mental health outcomes, so that instead of just surviving, you're thriving.” (Pfizer)
Definitions of the word “coping” are more consistent across sources. For example, Wikipedia describes coping as a “means to invest one's own conscious effort to solve personal and interpersonal problems in order to try to master, minimize or tolerate stress and conflict.” (Wikipedia) So, with these definitions in mind, what are some of our neighbors doing to cope and to stay as well as possible in the midst of a pandemic? As it turns out, they are doing quite a lot!
Almost all our respondents have been trying to maintain some kind of exercise program. For some this may be as simple as a morning walk around the block or an afternoon stroll around the neighborhood; others have been taking to the trails for longer hikes, alone or with socially distant companions. Online yoga or other “mat” type exercises and home exercise equipment, such as treadmills, stationary bikes, and free weights, are also part of members’ fitness activities. While some of the people we interviewed are dealing with ongoing medical issues, some of which are quite serious, all agreed that it was important to keep moving, if, whenever, and however possible, for both the physical and psychological benefits these efforts can provide.
Respondents also stressed the importance of “exercising” their minds. They are doing this by more intellectually-oriented means, such as reading, taking online courses, and staying informed about local, national and global events and politics. But many also stressed the importance of cultivating creativity as an antidote to pandemic-induced exhaustion, fear, or ennui.
This effort to create and to express oneself through more artistic means took many forms—cooking, gardening, woodworking, watercolor painting, sewing, creative writing, playing musical instruments—but the emphasis for most was on the process and experience of being creative rather than on evaluating or judging the outcome of their efforts. As one participant, put it—using the example of accepting that the apple she was trying to paint had turned out to be a tomato—“you need to try something and go with what comes out.”
For most of the people we interviewed, the pandemic has also required adopting or reinforcing a helpful perspective or philosophy of life as a way of coping. For some, this perspective has come from practicing more organized and overarching spiritual traditions, such as attending (online) services, reading inspirational literature, praying, or meditating. Others mentioned using specific tools, such as the Serenity Prayer and the idea of “one day at a time,” that have been made popular by self-help programs like Alcoholics Anonymous. Some respondents also found perspective, as well as diversion, in nature, finding that watching the turn of the seasons, the scurrying around of squirrels, or the behavior of birds, to be good reminders of the eternal and inevitable cycles of life, loss, and change.
Still others have adopted the approach that “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” For example, one interviewee suggested that it is important to “lean into” the restrictions and limitations provided by the pandemic and use this as an opportunity to go inward and reflect upon one’s life and what one can still make of it. Another said that the pandemic has been a “blessing in disguise” because it has forced him to develop interests he had long planned to cultivate. And one participant stressed the importance of accepting her limitations, that some days it is enough to “just take out the recycling.”
Finally, a number of participants stressed the importance of celebrating, doing something fun, and maintaining a sense of humor. As one woman said, “Celebrate, even if you live alone—your birthday, holidays—celebrate one holiday and start planning for the next!!” And a sense of humor, several noted, can go a long way to “cutting through the baloney!”
Needless to say, connecting with others was also very important to our respondents, though in differing degrees. Some found their primary comfort in close family ties and frequent, even daily, phone, Facetime, Zoom, or, when possible, in person connections with family, especially children and grandchildren. Though also sometimes a source of worry, grandchildren were specifically mentioned by several as a source of joy and hope. Others depended on less frequent but ongoing connections with people outside their family, such as one man’s weekly men’s group and several women’s ongoing deep connections with old and new friends. Also, a number of respondents mentioned the importance of remaining civically engaged by doing online or socially distanced voluntary or political work, which not only provides connection, but also intellectual engagement and a sense of purpose.
In summary, we found that the ways our respondents have tried to cope with the realities of a global pandemic are also things that have helped to promote “wellness.” Similarly, efforts to be “well” appear to have helped our interviewees to cope. So, despite their different definitions, it appears that these two sets of actions are, at the least, mutually-reinforcing.
Our interviews also reveal that many older adults have actually gained new skills, internal resources, and external supports in the last year. In fact, the level of resilience, creativity, and acceptance of change that we found in our small sample was inspirational and might serve as an antidote to the “lost,” “limited,” and “damaged” narratives we have often seen and heard from the media. This is not to say that these losses and harms are not real, or should not be talked about, only that we must also talk about, and learn from, people who have managed to survive—and even thrive—in the past year.
Interestingly, several of the people we interviewed commented that they felt they had been somewhat prepared for the pandemic by their experience of retirement, which taught them the importance of slowing down, spending time in their own company, and developing some of the new skills and orientations that have helped them get through the last year. We also heard from several people who drew upon lessons they have learned from surviving other challenging or painful experiences earlier in their lives.
Overall, these interviews suggest that seeing older members of our community primarily as victims may prevent everyone (ourselves included!) from seeing us as the important role models, teachers, and inspirations that we are.
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When we couldn’t meet, even at a distance, there was always Zoom! Photo: Sue Katz
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ZOOMING
Lynn Bechtel and Luke Berman
Zoom. Up until this past year that word likely conjured up speed and roaring engines, not a means of social connection. But in response to the upending effects of the pandemic, for many of us Zoom is now a part of our lives. We thought it might be interesting to learn what Zooming has been like for some fellow Amherst Neighbors members. How have they used Zoom? What are the benefits? Drawbacks? Surprises? In what ways might Zoom become a part of their post-pandemic lives?
Of the eight members interviewed for this article, seven had not used Zoom before this past year. What propelled them into their first encounters varied enormously—a board meeting in Springfield, a yoga class, a religious service, birthday parties, an ailing distant friend, a co-housing pod that replaced large community gatherings. These initial uses touch on the four broad brush categories that are in play now for these members: work (broadly defined), social/family relationships, classes/education, and religious services. Here is a look at each.
Work. Although all the participants are retired, a number are on the boards and/or committees of organizations, and those meetings are all Zoomed. There is general appreciation of the convenience of attending meetings from home, the efficiency of being able to stack up meetings on a given day, and the focus on a given agenda. But many noted that something is lost in the efficiency and focus of Zoom meetings.
To varying extents, members miss the social aspect of face-to-face meetings—the chatting before and after, the catching up and joking. And there are those who feel confined and restless sitting in front of a computer screen on Zoom. One member said seeing all the on-screen faces was overwhelming after a while. But in spite of reservations, the refrain “Still, it’s better than nothing” was often repeated.
Family and Social Relationships. Most of the people we interviewed use Zoom to stay in contact with family members, many of whom are scattered across the country. Frequency of contact ranges from occasional holiday gatherings to weekly or bi-weekly meetings with children and, sometimes, grandchildren. One member uses Zoom to hold weekly classes for two grandchildren.
Everyone we spoke to is glad to have the contact and some said they now have more consistent contact than pre-pandemic. But many are also sad that this contact can sometimes feel stilted and lack the emotional charge of in-person visits. A gathering may be a series of narrative sharings, important but not fulfilling. And large gatherings can feel chaotic for some, with people talking over one another and the Zoom connections getting wobbly at times.
One creative response to possible chaos was a structured birthday party that a member attended at which the attendees were asked in advance to think of something they had learned from the celebrated person and to share it at the party, resulting in some wonderful moments and memories.
Zoom can also have a powerful effect on relationships. One member has a friendship going back over five decades. Her friend, whom she visits every year up in Canada, is slipping into senility, which makes phone conversations difficult. Our member began Zooming instead of phoning. Turns out her friend is much more present when voice is combined with visuals. The visits, by necessity, involve the Canadian friend’s daughter, who makes the Zooms happen. The result is not only more satisfying meetings between the two old friends, but a deepening connection with the daughter. And Zooming can create opportunities to form new relationships. Going to local Zoomed meetings around social justice issues has exposed one member to other people in our community whom she did not know but whom she decided she wanted to. And she did, using email to introduce herself.
Classes/Education. One of the striking benefits of classes and educational experiences moving to Zoom is the opportunity to engage in diverse activities from around the country—an oriental rug convention in California, Grand Rounds at Massachusetts General in Boston, and birding lectures from Cornell, are a few examples. Closer to home, yoga classes have been able to be Zoomed as opposed to ended. One member is part of a group that Zooms into plays off Broadway in New York and then meets on Zoom to share reactions. For some members, these experiences are the least ambivalent, as the social aspect is not an expectation.
Religious Services. Zoom serves as a way for some members to continue to attend church or temple services. The after-service coffee hour gatherings of the Unitarian Universalist church were an important part of one member’s sense of belonging to a community. With the pandemic, the coffee hour moved to Zoom where congregants meet in small groups. Our AN member said that the Zoom groups are proving more satisfying than the in-person gatherings they replace, as people feel freer to talk about heartfelt things. Another member attends the Jewish Community of Amherst Friday night Shabbat service over Zoom, celebrated Passover at a family Zoom Seder, and meets with a JCA social justice committee.
The Future. While anticipating less use of Zoom when face-to-face meetings are once again the norm, almost all of those interviewed expected Zoom to be an on-going way to stay in touch with friends and/or family members, attend committee meetings and other work-related activities, and attend conferences, presentations, and classes at a distance.
Whose future are we talking about? When asked her feelings regarding using Zoom, one person interviewed said that along with appreciating Zoom, she had a sense of guilt and was very aware of her privilege in being able to easily access and use Zoom. She noted that there are folks, many of whom may well be among the most isolated in the age of Covid-19, who cannot use Zoom. Some can’t afford a computer and the necessary hardware to access and maintain Internet connectivity and some have no computer experience and feel insecure about learning to use one. Perhaps there is a role for Amherst Neighbors to help these neighbors, something for us to keep in mind as we go forward.
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Our Newsletter team (meeting on Zoom): Jane Mildred, Sue Katz, Marianne Connolly, Lynn Bechtel, Luke Berman, Audrey Child, Ellen Dickinson.
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INTERVIEWS: THEN AND NOW
Interview with Liz Welsh, outgoing Amherst Neighbors President, December 2019
Luke Berman
Seated at her kitchen table—the same kitchen table where Amherst Neighbors was born a year and a half earlier—Liz Welsh reflected back on the decades-long path that led her to become a prime mover in the creation of Amherst Neighbors. Back when she was a college undergraduate, Liz chose to study social change movements and, upon graduating, became a community organizer. That work involved her with community health centers and, over time, she came to feel that the best way to meet her concerns and interests in helping people was to become a nurse.
And she did. Liz went back to school for a second BA more than twenty-five years ago. That, in turn, led her onto a new, unexpected path. Her first job as a nurse was at a home care program, where she found herself spending a great deal of time with older people. And she loved it. While doing hospice nursing, she was impressed with the important, enriching relationships that hospice volunteers provided for their near-death companions. But the need for companionship, for relief from loneliness and isolation, was not limited to those in hospice care. Other older people she worked with had that same need. She filed that awareness away, thinking that someday she might be in position to help.
Then, a few years ago, Liz began hearing about Northampton Neighbors. Intrigued, she attended some meetings. The Northampton Neighbors folks arranged to have Liz meet other people from Amherst who had expressed an interest in creating a similar organization for Amherst and Pelham. After this, some of those who had been present at that meeting met again at Liz’s kitchen table and committed to moving forward. That was the beginning of Amherst Neighbors.
The path from nurturing a wonderful idea to helping build a hugely complex organization was a tremendous challenge for Liz. But she has been surrounded by a core of similarly dedicated, talented people, each with important and distinct skills, who are just as passionate about the mission of AN as she was. For Liz, her major role as Amherst Neighbors’ president has been to keep track of all the pieces that were needed to make AN a reality and then to help keep those pieces moving.
However, it is clear from this interview that Liz brought more of herself to this position than just her considerable organizational skills. Looking back over the path Liz has travelled, it seems that in helping to create AN, she has reconnected to the path she set out on as a community organizer. And to an even earlier path: That undergraduate concerned with social change is clearly still in Liz and appears to have informed everything she has done with and for Amherst Neighbors.
Going out into the community and meeting with individuals and groups to talk about AN has been one of the joys for Liz in her role as AN President. In what she described as “these divisive times,” Liz sees AN as offering a great opportunity to bring people in Amherst together. And after so many years of helping people in other communities with issues in their lives, there has been a special gratification for Liz working in her own community.
At the time of our interview (December, 2019) Liz believed that Amherst Neighbors would soon be a vibrant organization with a strong volunteer program and events and social gatherings that would bring people together for meaningful conversations, mutual support, and fun. Looking further down the road, Liz envisioned AN as a force for change in Amherst in such areas affecting older residents as affordable housing and transportation. But at the end of our interview, Liz looked up at the heavy light fixture hanging high above her kitchen table. She had changed a light bulb in it a few weeks ago and had found herself thinking that at some point down the road she wouldn’t be able to get up on a ladder to do that. That gave her pause. Liz has imagined many wonderful contributions that AN would make to lives in Amherst, not the least of which is helping to change a light bulb.
Editor’s Note: Much has changed since this interview was conducted. Amherst Neighbors, like other organizations, has had to adapt both its timeline and its focus in response to the realities and limitations of Covid 19. But throughout this time, Liz Welsh has continued to work many hours a week to help build an organization that remains just as committed to serving our community as she had hoped it would be. While many have contributed, a significant part of our organization’s success may be credited to Liz’s outstanding work at the helm. And, while she is no longer President, Liz continues to serve on the Board and to contribute to Amherst Neighbors in numerous other ways.
In a joint statement of appreciation, fellow Board members Caroline Lederman, Linda Spink, Linda Terry, and Carlie Tartakov had this to say: “Liz brought tireless energy, contagious enthusiasm and belief in the vision of Amherst Neighbors, and a collaborative, mutually appreciative working style that led to a successful launch in the midst of the Covid pandemic. Additionally, she built strong connections to Amherst-Pelham leaders that generated early visibility and community support.”
THANK YOU, LIZ!
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Both our incoming and outgoing presidents, Liz Walsh and Caroline Lederman, are deeply committed to our beautiful towns and their older residents!
Photos: Jane Mildred, left, and Sue Katz, right.
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INTERVIEWS: THEN AND NOW
Interview with Caroline Lederman, incoming Amherst Neighbors President, February 2021
Marietta Pritchard
Caroline Lederman was there, at Liz Welsh’s kitchen table, when Amherst Neighbors was created in 2018. Now, three years later, following Liz as founding president, Caroline has taken over as President of the thriving organization known as Amherst Neighbors.
Caroline describes herself as “always involved with groups,” as a social worker in Queens working with people with addiction, as head of a local PTA, as an herbalist, as a Reiki practitioner, and as a hospice volunteer. It’s her ongoing interest, she says, to “keep finding ways to connect people.” And that, of course, is the central purpose of this organization. Amherst Neighbors is not a social service agency, Caroline points out. Rather, it functions in a spirit of reciprocity, with members assisting and connecting with other members in their daily lives. In addition to the concrete forms of help Amherst Neighbors plans to provide—grocery shopping, transportation, household help—are the even more important opportunities the organization is already providing to help older people connect with others, to join with people of similar interests, to counteract the loneliness that so often accompanies aging.
A grand opening reception for Amherst Neighbor was planned for March 29, 2020, but when the pandemic struck, it had to be cancelled, as did many of the organization’s other plans. Yet the pandemic has been “a kind of weird gift,” says Caroline, because it’s slowed everything down, forced, among other things, a greater dependency on a website. “It’s great technology and now we have an opportunity to learn how to use it.” At 57, Caroline feels that the neural pathways in her brain are expanding with all the new things she’s learning. For now, the organization has no paid administrator, no office, and it’s possible, says Caroline, that post-Covid, we may not need either. But these are questions still to be fully considered. Zooming, another pandemic development, certainly has its limitations, but it also has its benefits in bringing people together, especially those who are unable to get out. As she puts it, the Zoom platform lets everyone get heard, creating a kind of intimacy.
Caroline has taken on a big job. She helps coordinate the work of seven volunteer committees during a time when they cannot get together in person. Another important task is to be “ambassador to the larger community.” With all of these responsibilities, and more, Caroline puts in about 20 intensive hours a week with Amherst Neighbors. But she also has another life, as wife and mother of three kids in their twenties. When she’s not working, she does yoga and meditates for 20-30 minutes a day, hikes in the woods with her husband, ice skates, reads (mostly nonfiction), and, in another time, enjoyed travel.
In a follow-up conversation, Liz Welsh, the founding president of Amherst Neighbors, noted that Caroline has been involved in nearly every aspect of the group’s startup—co-chairing the fundraising committee, learning the computer platform, setting up a Facebook page for fundraising, and (formerly) hosting meetings at her house. Liz describes Caroline as perceptive, skillful, and heartfelt. Most important, perhaps, she is “excellent at pulling people together.” Pat Romney, who worked with Caroline as co-chair of the fundraising committee, says that among her many other skills, Caroline is also an excellent fundraiser. “She is warm and knowledgeable – someone people can talk to easily.”
WELCOME CAROLINE!
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Happy Spring from Amherst Neighbors! Photo: Ellen Dickinson
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