If
you look closely on the corner of Waterman and Angelica Streets in
Mattapoisett, MA, you might see a castle. It’s not made out of
stone and mortar like palaces of old, nor does it have ramparts,
turrets, a drawbridge or even a moat. Everyone’s home is
their castle, and my mom was no different. It looks more like a
summer cottage, which it is, but my mom lived in that castle for
nearly 50 years raising her family. It was merely a few years
earlier when she earned her simple white crown.
She
and my dad purchased the four-bedroom, one bath cottage in 1964 in
the Crescent Beach section of Mattapoisett. They rented that
house or the one next door a few times when they could not rent the
house in Old Orchard Beach, Maine which they had done for years.
When the opportunity to purchase the cottage came up, they didn’t
want to lose the chance and bought it. Since mom loved the beach, the
goal was to use the small house during the summer as a vacation spot
and rent it out for a few weeks to pay the local taxes and utilities.
Once
they moved in, mom decorated the inside making it “beachy”
and more livable. Dad remodeled one room at a time per year.
He
would paint the window frames and trim on weekends one
summer.
Next year he modernized the kitchen, then the bathroom, the dining
room, the parlor, bedrooms, etc. Dad made that castle sparkle over
the years for mom.
Like
most castles the house was situated on the highest piece of land in
the area about 250 yards from the water. Photos from the 1938
hurricane showed a storm surge coming up the street, but it never
reached the house. In 1954 Hurricane Carol blew through the
area but again no damage was incurred. Even Hurricane Bob’s
strong winds in 1991 only uprooted a neighbor’s tree grazing
the garage. While these winds tested her castle, it remained standing
and she knew it was solidly built.
Mom
didn’t have a throne nor a long flowing cape, but she did have
a crown. Over the years she found a very comfortable chair that
served her well as a throne. She sat happily in a room with
tall windows overlooking her kingdom, the water and sometimes the
large ocean-going ships heading to Boston and beyond as they entered
or exited the Cape Cod Canal. Her kingdom consisted of dusty
dirt roads and potholes filled with seashells.
When
she trekked to the beach, a short distance from the house, she
required no servants. Mom carried her own gear and personal
items which included a simple webbed aluminum beach chair which
became her temporary throne and a long printed towel that doubled as
her royal cape. She always left her “crown” in a bag at
the castle. At lunchtime she returned to the castle but she didn’t
have any “ladies-in-waiting” or chefs to prepare her
lunch. She pulled out bread making a baloney or tuna fish
sandwich for herself and returned to her spot on the sandy
beach.
Breathing in the refreshing salt air and basking in the noon day
summer sun, Mom gazed over her dominion on Buzzards Bay and the
Atlantic Ocean. The Crescent Beach community came to know her
and her gentle character. She enjoyed watching over the young
children building their sand castles at low tide as others gathered
treasures of sea glass, quahog and clam shells, starfish, small crabs
or smooth stones. As the years passed, she knew the names of
those kids and always asked them what “booty” they
gathered from Davy Jones' locker.
Mom
realized her calling in life while working as a Red Cross volunteer
during disasters and emergencies of the mid-1950s with her mother, my
Nana. Mom’s middle name was Florence so it was possible
that that namesake, Florence Nightingale, influenced her
decision.
She decided to become a nurse when Morton Hospital in Taunton opened
a school for Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs). Mom was in the
very first class of graduates in the late 1950’s. This is where
she earned her starched white crown which she received after three
years of intensive schooling. She proudly wore that headgear
only on duty for nearly 30 years before retiring. She was assigned to
S-2, Surgical Unit 2, which was the second floor of the new wing of
the hospital. Most of the patients on this floor were
recovering from various surgeries and she became passionate in
helping them convalesce quickly, to be discharged.
By
the end of the 1970’s, mom and dad started thinking of
downsizing and they sold their Taunton house and moved into the
castle permanently. The work my dad did year after year made
the palace winter accessible. They added a two-car garage and a loft
for storage. My dad didn’t get a chance to enjoy the home
because he passed away in 1981. But as my mom said to me, “He
got it done so we would be able to enjoy it.” Five years
later she retired.
Each
summer brought new subjects to the kingdom. Some rented
cottages for a week or month at a time while others purchased their
own estates. Friendship between these new arrivals grew
quickly
as they shared the same patch of beach sand and shore. It
wasn’t long before they learned of her nursing skills.
Mom treated an assortment of ailments, particularly on the younger
beach goers. She handled cuts from broken glass and seashells,
scrapes from rocks or barnacles, even poison ivy. In her
beach
bag she carried a tube of “magic” first aid ointment,
bandages or gauze to provide a temporary relief of those minor
wounds, not refusing anyone.
Age,
however, took its toll on her after she had a bad fall. Mom
used a walker for a while to get around but she never fully
recovered, going in and out of hospitals and nursing homes.
But
her big heart kept her going, though she never wore her crown or cape
again. Mom died peacefully in 2013 at the age of
91. Her
wake and funeral were held in Mattapoisett. Many subjects
from
the kingdom came to pay respects to their “sovereign.”
She was called by many names over the course of her life:
Miss,
Mrs., Mom, Memere, Nurse Caron, even “Doctor” Caron. But
in that sandy kingdom by the seashore, she will always be remembered
as the Queen of Crescent Beach.
