So I Walk Into the Town House Basement

Two years ago, I went to a Board Meeting of the Dover Council on Aging because I had a question I wanted to ask. I don’t even remember what that question was now. Maybe I never got around to asking it, because I was so astonished at what I saw, and what I heard at that meeting, that all I can remember is that I walked out of there thinking that something has to be done about this.

I guess I had never had a reason to think about the COA. I had some vague idea that it was a group of senior townsfolk who gathered together once in a while to plan a few “events” for seniors to do. But that day, I realized that I hadn’t a clue about what was going on.

One of the most important services of the COA is to provide consultation for older Dover adults and their families, offering information on needed services and resources. It makes referrals for home care services, assisted living and nursing home facilities, support groups, adult day health services, etc. Family members living in other states often talk with the COA director about concerns they have for a aging family member living in Dover, and are able to create a plan to make the senior and the family feel more secure.

The COA, in cooperation with the Dover Police and Fire Departments, has established a program to help seniors plan for possible emergencies such as a heat wave in summer, an ice or snowstorm in winter, or anything else that would disrupt the usual healthy routine to which seniors are accustomed. Seniors need to be prepared to cope with a loss of electrical power or communication services and plan to meet their medical needs during such disruptions.

The COA has an outreach worker, Carl Sheridan, who maintains contact with Dover seniors, particularly those living alone, or those with special health needs, and by calling and visiting these residents he is able to be sure that they are managing and that their needs are met and that they feel safe and comfortable in their homes.

The Council on Aging works with other organizations to provide confidential assistance to older residents regarding their health insurance, taxes, and legal questions they might have.

There is a medical equipment loan program.

The COA arranges for Senior Community Work, a tax work off program.

Seniors can participate in health clinics, attend nutrition workshops and fitness/exercise classes, computer instruction classes, luncheons and other social activities.

There are educational and cultural experiences, as well as special trips and events.

I learned that the COA had been accomplishing a lot despite horrendous odds. The odds against its success relate to the locations in which it must conduct its program.

The “home” of the COA is in the basement of the Town House, in a room known as the Fireside Room. Although this name conjures up an image of a warm, cozy, homey atmosphere, with comfy chairs, and perhaps magazines and newspapers, and a cup of coffee, the truth is that after the remodeling of the Town House, the newly reduced Fireside Room and its non-functioning fireplace, abundance of florescent overhead lights, institutional-blue cement block walls, and two large mismatched wooden tables was what was “almost” set aside as a gathering place for the town’s older residents.

The Fireside Room also functions as the lunchroom for the Town House staff, and is often commandeered as a meeting space for the entire Town House staff. This means that no senior activities can be scheduled for 12:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m. or so every afternoon.

The COA has a professional director, a licensed social worker, trained in working with older adults and their particular issues. She maintains close contact with the State Department of Elder Affairs, and with COA Directors in other Massachusetts towns. The nature of her work requires strict privacy and confidentiality. She works with families and individuals on sensitive matters. So her “office” is a closet, specifically, an old janitor’s closet. In fact, I remember when it was a janitor’s closet back when I used to work at town elections, and we election workers would eat dinner in the Fireside Room before returning to work. All of the director’s files and records are housed in this closet. It’s small and not conducive to meetings of more than 2 people. And it has a persistent leak, that defies efforts at repair.

Luncheons for seniors are held at churches in town, the Legion, at the Caryl Community Center in the old music room, which is also used by town residents as a space to hold birthday party celebrations, and occasionally the old cafeteria at the Caryl Community Center. Talk about a moveable feast.

Bocce ball is at the Legion, tea is at the library, exercise is at the police station or the Caryl Community Center, or the Great Room in the Town House.

The Senior Coffee Hour, a very well-attended gathering, is held in the Fireside Room with everyone seated along the two large mismatched wooden tables. On chairs that must have come from when the library was housed at the Town House. In fact, now that I think about it, maybe that’s where the tables came from also. I won’t even try to comment on the ambience of that arrangement. Martha Stewart would be dumbfounded. I know I was. Getting your coffee from the coffee urn to your chair along the table is not for the faint of heart. It’s an adventure in trying to not spill the hot beverage on yourself or down the backs of the others gathered along the table.

Needless to say, it is difficult to carry on a conversation when thus arranged. Yet, the attendees assemble again and again, because they enjoy the company.

Every time the COA holds an event away from the Fireside Room, the director and her volunteers must schlep all the necessary paperwork, food, furniture, and what else is needed from the Town House to the other venue. And then, back again.

Then there’s the foot doctor. The less said on that, the better.

I could go on and on, and probably will in the future. I have a long list of why this whole arrangement is just not working, why it needs to change, and how to make it much, much better.

The upshot is that I walked out of that Board Meeting two years ago, and got to work forming the Friends of the Dover Council on Aging. We have an active and eager board that is busy raising money for needed COA programs and services.

I got to know the COA Board and the director – a great group of people. I have started attending COA functions, and have found them to be very enjoyable.

You work, you rear your kids, you get old. Sorry, folks. It happens. Your kids move away, your friends move to be nearer their kids, or worse, begin getting ill and pass away. You can find yourself stuck in your house, watching way too much television, not eating right, not drinking the healthy beverages. Sometimes you just want to go where there are people who are happy to see you and would like to have a coffee with you and chat.

Or sometimes you want to take a trip somewhere, but you don’t feel you can do the driving safely anymore. You’d like to go the ICA, the Gardener, the MFA, the Peabody Essex, a baseball game, Wegmans? So, go with the COA.

Like to take some classes, learn a language, discuss current events, paint, write poetry, learn new photography skills, talk to people who have recently traveled to countries you would like to visit? Do it through the COA.

With more and more seniors choosing to remain in Dover, in their houses, there is a growing need for the programs and services of the Council on Aging. Virtually every town and city in Massachusetts, and all across America, has a COA which looks to the needs of its older citizens, and provides the space in which to carry out this valuable program. We have a way to go, but we have begun the journey.