Tag: 61-70

#1 – Annette Reid

| November 1, 2011 | 0 Comments

Stock image, I'm afraid, but she's close enough....

Annette is the kind of person who doesn’t know how to do nothing. She spent years as a teacher until she retired, and has spent her retirement staying as busy as humanly possible. She takes cooking class and a yoga class, sets up picnics for her neighborhood, plays in the North River Senior Softball league, hikes with the Library Boosters, and she’s on the school board. She volunteers to read in the library’s Children’s Reading Room, tends gardens with the town Gardening Club, volunteers at a soup kitchen, and takes the occasional Spanish class. She puts dinners together the North River Ladies’ Club, finds speakers to talk to junior high school students, and substitutes in the high school. She works in the Town Clerk’s office every election day, helps the kids at the local Youth Center, and volunteers at the North River Preservationist Society.

She is, needless to say, extremely well-organized, and doesn’t deal well with boredom.

In her retirement, Annette has found out how to be busier than she ever was as a teacher. The only person she doesn’t do anything for is herself, a fact which has – up until now – eluded her. With the death of her sister, however, Annette was forced to take a good look at her priorities and decide who she really needed to make happy. After all this time, she doesn’t know who she really is without someone else to reflect off of.

She’s married to Alan, who has been very patient with his hyperkinetic wife. He used to call himself a “schoolteacher’s widower,” and managed to build an entire life for himself without his wife knowing. He loves her, but he knows that she thrives on being full of things to do, and wouldn’t dream of trying to stop her.

Annette is short and slight, in her mid-60s, with short hair that’s going gray from a deep brown. She usually dresses well, being of a mind that it is your responsibility to make a good impression on others. So, whether she’s giving a speech to the town council or weeding the park, she looks good. She has a smile for everyone.

Her story: Out of the Rain