BELLOWS FALLS — Marlene O'Connor loves when the guys she waits on at the Bellows Falls Area Senior Center call her honey, dear and sweetheart. "It's all in good fun," she said. "It means they're comfortable being around me." Her husband, she said, does the same thing with ladies at the senior center. "It's kind of cute," she said. O'Connor is 82-years-old and this year's Senior of the Year. She's the sort of person who loves being around people. It keeps her young, she said. She spends her free time volunteering and waiting on tables at the senior center. Before that, she was the chair of the local blood drive for 25 years. Senior of the year is voted on each year by members of the center at the Senior Center annual picnic. One of the voters drew a red heart around O'Connor's name, she said. "She gives so much," Executive Director Teagen Kosut said. "To come in and help out with meals is one thing, but to be so warm and so welcoming to people that come here is another." O'Connor got involved with the Senior Center 25 years ago when members of the center asked her to come teach aerobics there. She loves being involved and meeting new people. She also loves working with Kosut. "Teagen's just wonderful," she said. She hangs Kosut's daughters' drawings on her refrigerator. The two are close. One of the things that makes O'Connor remarkable, Kosut said, is her dedication towards others. O'Connor's always concerned with making other people feel comfortable at the senior center. "It's a place for them to relax," she said. Whenever she sees new people at the center she introduces them to the people they're sitting with, "so they're not just sitting with a stranger," she said. She's just happy being around people and making them happy, she said. She's been married to her husband Bill O'Connor for 62 years. The two grew up together in Bellows Falls. They were neighbors and used to play hide-and-go-seek in her backyard. She was in seventh grade and he was a junior in high school when they met. When he graduated high school, he was drafted into the Korean War and by the time he got back O'Connor was old enough for the two to date. They were married when O'Connor was 20 at St. Charles Church in Bellows Falls. The two are parishioners even today. "It's the most beautiful church in Bellows Falls," she said. After O'Connor had her children, she ran a small daycare. The children called her Mono, she said with a smile. Later in life, O'Connor went to work for TD Bank as a teller. She liked being able to interact with people. After she retired, O'Connor worked at the blood drive and taught water aerobics classes. She's always been involved in the community and around people. "Our kids say to us, 'Mom, you and Dad gotta slow down.' I say to them, 'If I start to slow down you get a shovel.'" She thinks being active and, more importantly, being around people is helping her survive. "You've got to be around people to keep it together," she said. The Senior Center is a good way to be around people, said Kosut. "It helps area seniors, to get them out and about, to get them socializing, to get them eating well," Kosut said. "Sometimes people retire and they don't know what to do." Going to the Senior Center helps seniors meet like-minded people who they can do fun activities with, such as Cribbage, Kosut said. "It starts something after that career." The Senior Center is open 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. Meals are served 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Meals costs $3.50 but those who can't pay are still welcome, O'Connor said. Harmony Birch can be reached at 802-254-2311, ext.153. Or you can follow her @birchharmony. Posted Friday, September 29, 2017 7:03 pm Brattleboro Reformer Photo by KRISTOPHER RADDER - BRATTLEBORO REFORMER
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Patricia Paltiel FowlerMember of the Bellows Falls Woman's Club, since 2003, Communications Committee, Archives
August 2023
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