Good times, good people remembered at sixth Sharon Hospital reunion

SHARON — The presence of Barbara “Babs” McLane was felt, deeply, at the Sharon Hospital reunion picnic on Friday, Sept. 16, at the Grove in Salisbury.

A longtime nurse at Sharon Hospital, McLane had died just a few days before the gathering, on Tuesday, Sept. 13, at the age of 85.  

About 35 former hospital nurses, doctors, administrators and maintenance staff members attended the picnic, which has grown every year since it was started several years ago by retirees (and best friends) Cele Cummings and Peg Brusie. This was the sixth annual picnic. Last year’s picnic was notable because it was the first to which the retired physicians were invited. This year, the list of attending physicians included Richard Collins and Bill Gallup. 

A first for this year: The current top administrators from Sharon Hospital stopped by to pay their respects to the former staffers. CEO Peter Cordeau (who was chief nursing officer until his promotion last November), CFO Christian Bergeron and Chief Nursing Officer Lori Puff came by to say hello and stayed to hear a few stories about “the old days,” which one picnic attendee referred to as “the golden years” of the hospital.

Everyone at the picnic agreed that the staff was like a family back then. Jack Hawley, who helped organize this year’s event with Gail Hammond (who was unable to attend because of  recent surgery), said in his welcoming remarks, “We had a great place. We were a community. If anyone had a problem, we all had a problem.”

Hawley gave a shout-out to Tru Fischer, who had traveled from South Carolina to attend the picnic. 

“It’s very important. I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” she said.  

Susan Funk traveled down for the picnic from Webster, N.Y., which is near Rochester. 

Most of the other retirees had traveled from area towns in Connecticut and nearby New York. 

As always, a plant was awarded to the eldest retiree in attendance, Mildred Rick, who is 97 this year.  She started at Sharon as a nurse and then was head of housekeeping for 21 years.

Rick suggested that, just to change things up, a plant should be awarded next year to the youngest retiree. That would be Jack Hawley, who said he is 62. 

A plant was also awarded to Marion Chatfield, a hospital nurse whose son, Bob, died in a car crash earlier this year.

Mortality was on the minds of everyone at the picnic. Hawley said he has made a list of the hospital employees who have died. He wasn’t able to specify the time frame, but said that 114 men and women who worked at the hospital have died, including six since the 2016 picnic. 

The most recent loss was Babs McLane. Hawley shared a memory of his time working at the hospital with her, as did several other people. They sketched a portrait of a woman with a vigorous sense of humor who liked a good party and was a very tough boss.

A service will be held for her at Noble Horizons on Saturday, Oct. 1, from 1 to 2 p.m.

“It will be a party, not a memorial,” Hawley said, and everyone agreed that McLane would have wanted it that way.

Hawley then announced that in the future, the reunion picnic will always be held on the third Friday of September. In 2017, that will be Sept. 15. Everyone there was encouraged to sign the guest book and leave a postal address, so reminder postcards can be sent out next year. Anyone who wants to be included but hasn’t attended in the past can email Hawley at jwhawley@snet.net or call him at 860-435-8962; or email Gail Hammond at gailmhammond@yahoo.com or call her at 860-435-2195.