Prof. Read’s class teamed up with the residents of Montello Heights, a retirement community located about one mile from campus. The Activities Director, Chris Packard, and the residents of Montello Heights have a long history of welcoming Bates students for interactive visits to play games, do crafts, and build relationships. In alignment with the topic of Family Stories, Read’s students engaged one-on-one with seniors for conversational interviews focused on learning each other’s stories of family and community. For their first writing assignment of the course, each student crafted a narrative piece about their new friend; at the end of the semester, they returned as a class with a bound book of the seniors’ stories to share with them. 

Luca Bernardin ‘29 sets the scene and shares how unexpected connections to their own family’s stories led them to a meaningful conversation with two residents:

On a windy Monday in October, my classmates and I loaded into a white Bobcat Express van and took a short ride to Montello Heights. After a brief accidental detour onto the second floor, we arrived in a large common space, in which Montello Heights residents and Bates students were able to introduce themselves to one another. Upon hearing the introductions of two residents, Joanne and Margaret, I felt particularly intrigued. Joanne spoke of her father’s family hailing from Holyoke, Massachusetts, only thirty minutes from my own home. Margaret shared her experience obtaining her social work degree, which my mother just completed, as well. 

As everyone settled into their matches and began asking their pre-prepared questions of their new acquaintances, the students were introduced to scenes of Lewiston and other Maine locales from the 20th century:

As I sat down with Cecile she began telling me about what Lewiston was like well before my arrival this fall. She explained how there were a lot of shoe shops in the area, and the job opportunities attracted people from all around Maine and Canada to find work in this industry. To give a concise summary, Cecile says that,“it’s milk, it’s shoes and it’s French people.” She can name every milk and shoe shop that was once in business here. There were too many French people for her to remember them all. 

-Matthew O’Reilly ‘29

Dianne grew up in Fort Kent, Maine, a rural town near the border with Canada. As the fifth-born of eleven children in a family that struggled financially, Dianne had a childhood that was full of both responsibility and adversity. Her father was Canadian and immigrated to the United States from Dalhousie, Nova Scotia. At home, they only spoke French, which presented a challenge when Dianne started kindergarten in an English-speaking, one-room schoolhouse. However, she picked up the language within two weeks of attending school and recalls that “it was amazing how much we learned from the other children.”

-Margaret Carlsmith ‘29

The students also gleaned insights from the retirees about their careers in fields that have changed greatly, but where advice from many years of experience still resonates:

Claudette was an inspiration in many ways. A career nurse at a now-closed institution, then named the Holy Ghost Hospital for the Incurables, she has cared for a wide range of emotionally and medically difficult cases, which were often just misunderstood and today would be completely curable conditions. … I myself want to go into medicine as a physician, so this conversation hit home for me as she offered invaluable advice on how to earn the respect and work well with nurses, whose expertise often anchors patient care. 

-George Matviak ‘29

Of course, in keeping with the class topic, there were also countless stories shared about family. From growing up on the family farm and becoming a secondary parent to the youngest siblings, to losing count of how many grandchildren they now have and finding family amongst close friendships, the seniors at Montello Heights had much to say about their families through the years. They shared stories of hardworking parents,

Sue’s father, after working at the mill, worked at our very own Bates College, where he was a maintenance worker, while her mother worked in the dorms. This caused happy memories for her–going to Bates football games and remembering all of the other maintenance workers and their speaking French almost exclusively.

-Finn Merrick ‘29

And of grown children who make them proud:

Shirley’s stories about her children revealed not just the passage of time, but the way family values evolve through generations. Her children grew up to live very different lives: some stayed in Maine, others moved to Florida or Massachusetts, but they all inherited her drive to work hard and help others.“All of mine had something beyond high school,” she said proudly. Some went to college and some to the military. They all found their own way. 

-Alina Hou ‘29

Ultimately, each student found something to connect to or a piece of wisdom to bring forward as they begin to shape their own life stories. Abdelkhadir Ahmed ‘29 summarized eloquently what he learned from the trio he chatted with:

When I left Montello that day, I realized I hadn’t just heard stories, I had seen what family means through three different lives. . . That’s when I understood what they had all been saying in their own ways – family isn’t just who you start with, it’s who you stay connected to, even when time keeps moving. 

We look forward to continuing to connect generations of Batesies with our neighbors at Montello Heights. Next up will be Prof. Cynthia Baker’s 100-level religious studies class in which students will interview residents this March about religion and community building throughout their lives.