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Date: 2/21/2023
SOUTHAMPTON — Council on Aging (COA) director Joan Linnehan recently announced she will retire in June from the position after five and a half years. How does she sound? Grateful to the town.
“I’m fortunate I found Southampton,” Linnehan said. “It’s a lovely community with great people. I’m glad that I could tie up my career here, in Southampton, and on a great note.”
Linnehan is excited about the new senior center, currently in the planning stages, that will better address some of the needs of seniors for transportation, nutrition and social time. The Southwick resident plays pickleball and claims only a bit of credit for its arrival in town. She also takes modest pride in maintaining the regional travel and sightseeing options the CoA schedules, with six destinations this year for day trips.
A serious difficulty for town seniors is the lack of housing.
“There’s not enough and they move out of town,” Linnehan said. “People like Connie Baron and Andrea Sullivan … they still come back and visit, but they had to move to other towns. I’m hoping with the new senior center they’ll also get more senior housing units, maybe in the same area.”
After half a decade as director, the keepsake memories Linnehan recalls are of simple conversations that also serve important needs. Bingo is never just bingo, it’s also face time, social connection and mental exercise. Seniors often have few chances to get out and interact. A conversation over coffee may keep depression and loneliness at bay.
“Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, so we were talking about what people are baking. People had a nice dinner or maybe they did a nice activity,” Linnehan said. “I like to see people interacting and enjoying their time, instead of sitting like a couch potato in front of the television. We don’t even have the television on in here.”
Linnehan won’t do much sitting around. Grandchildren under three years old, and also her own Valentine, Jesse Bernier, a few years older than her, will take a lot of her energy. Bernier has been with her for about nine years. They are engaged to be married.
Some of their time together was spent in a 36-foot highway home.
“We have an RV, so we’re going to head up to our getaway place in the hill towns,” Linnehan said. “Traveling is on my list. God willing, you stay safe and healthy, and I have family all over the country.”
The 65-year-old was part of a race walking group for the senior games and would like to do it again. Eating right and exercising are important. Zumba keeps her lungs in shape for dancing. She and Bernier go out to dance every Friday night, often at the East Mountain Country Club, or somewhere they can tap their toes to the music. Linnehan loves music and having a good time.
With those motivations, Linnehan said, “It’s time for me to step aside.” Commuting and the workaday world consume too much time and energy. But Linnehan’s career in service to the elderly seems to have grown out of love for the old people she didn’t get to know: her grandparents. She felt short-changed, as girl, because they died while she was too young to know them. As a result, she felt attracted to older people with life experience.
“They always had plenty of stories, and I was always magnetized to the old folks and now I’m one of them,” Linnehan said. “I like to hear stories … I like being able to fill needs, [so] whatever it is people are looking for I’m happy to match them up with the right help.”
Soon Linnehan will use the past tense when talking about her career in service. She marvels that her time among the elderly went so fast. World events offer a reference point, but it is plainly the selfless pleasure of serving others, and the friendships she nurtured, that gave value to her time at the Council on Aging.
“You can look back, all the memories, and say, wow, it was that many years ago,” Linnehan said. She mentioned the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in 2001. “It seems like it was just yesterday. Then you think about people who have come and gone in those years. Twenty years goes in the blink of an eye.”