Mom, daughter stay together at nursing home

By Dana Cudmore
Contributing Writer

November 24, 2007 04:00 am

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WORCESTER _ It's not unusual for a mother and daughter to spend time together, especially around the holidays.

It is unusual when they share a nursing home.

And it's practically unheard of when mom has passed the century mark.

Dorothy Simonson, 105, and her daughter, Gloria, 80, enjoyed a full Thanksgiving dinner at the Schohanna Adult Rest Home on Thursday, their fourth together at the assisted-living facility on Main Street.

Both women have a "healthy appetite," according to daughter Gloria, and they praised the cooking of home owner and resident caregiver Jestina McLean. It was a traditional meal with turkey, dressing, potatoes and all the trimmings.

Dorothy, born Sept. 10, 1902, at her grandmother's house in Weymouth, Mass., is well-known in the Worcester community. She taught grade school and high school there since 1932, retiring in the early 1960s.

Although frail, the two women are in "excellent health," according to McLean. While Gloria does most of the talking for the pair, her mother easily recalls dates and events, such as her first teaching job in Hancock in Delaware County.

Neither woman has a particular secret to longevity. "You jut have to keep going and going," said Gloria, born Sept. 2, 1927.

The pair spend their day hosting an occasional visitor, enjoying McLean's fresh flowers, and watching "The Lawrence Welk Show" once a week, along with the British comedy "Keeping up Appearances." Gloria frequently reads to her mother, who enjoys the Father Brown mystery series.

"It's nice to have someone reading to you," Dorothy said.

Born Dorothy Davidson, her family lived in the Roxbury area, where she attended high school and met Richard Simonson of Grand Gorge. The two married soon after and lived in Cooperstown before a job teaching elementary school opened up in Worcester.

Richard Simonson died in a automobile accident on snow-covered roads in 1966.

The Davidson side of the family was concentrated in the Roxbury area, and many of them were also educators, according to Gloria. Oneonta historian, Mark Simonson, who writes a column for The Daily Star, is a distant cousin.

"He's a very interesting writer," she said.

Gloria, who worked selling children's books after World War II at Whitney's Department Store in Albany, never married. Mother and daughter have outlived all immediate family.

Worcester resident Ann Messina lives across the street from the Schohanna home and met the Simonsons through one of her tenants.

"I was amazed to see an 80-year-old woman reading (the Bible) to her mother. It's wonderful. I can't believe she's 105," Messina said. "Her former students and her neighbors all love her."

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