Published: October 16, 2009 02:57 pm      

In These Otsego Hills: Cooperstown loses two of its own

Last week was not a good week. Cooperstown lost two of its own. Donald C. Reed, Jr. and Dorothy Elizabeth Chase.

Both were Cooperstown natives and both graduated from Cooperstown High School, Dorothy in 1938 and Donny in 1943. And they both made their own individual contributions to the community.

We are unable to move through our house without noting Donnie’s handiwork. Even as we write this, the carpet at our feet is there because of Donnie. However, when we remember Donnie, it is not for the carpet with which we live, but for the radiator that he took off our hands. When we moved back here in 1982, we had the heating system redone, replacing the radiators with baseboard heat. However, many years ago, Jerry’s grandmother had the radiator taken out of her bedroom, as it produced too much heat.

It was stored in the basement and, unfortunately, did not go away when the rest of the radiators did in 1982. Consequently, when we decided to re-do a part of the basement for Christopher’s digs, we were forced into disposing of the radiator.

Twice Doug Gohde lugged it to the landfill. And twice he brought it back to us as it was not accepted. He was told it could leach something, we know not what, into the soil which would then run down Willow Brook and into the lake. So the radiator then took up residence in the garage until Donnie arrived one day and asked if we had a radiator which we wished to get rid of. We showed him the radiator and he pronounced it to be perfect.

Perfect for what, we asked. And he explained he was going to use it as an anchor for his buoy to which he tied up his boat on the lake. So directly into the lake went the radiator, bypassing both landfill and Willow Brook. And, as far as we know, it is still resting comfortably at the bottom of the lake.

And so, although we will certainly miss seeing Donnie around town, we will always remember, with a smile on our face, Donnie’s recycling of the Ellsworth radiator. To Donnie’s family and his many friends, we extend our sympathy.

We first encountered Dorothy Chase when we married into the Ellsworth family in the summer of 1971. At that time she cleaned for our mother-in-law, Enid Ellsworth. And when Enid died ten years later, Dorothy started cleaning for us and continued to do so until she broke her wrist thus ending her cleaning days. However, not being one to stay idle, Dorothy continued volunteering at the senior meals nutrition center, at Bassett Healthcare and, of course, at Christ Episcopal Church. Sometime during our tenure as treasurer at Christ Church, we started joining her once a week for lunch at the nutrition center. And we took her home from the church Friday mornings after she finished folding and stuffing the Sunday bulletins.

Unfortunately, the time came when we began to realize that Dorothy needed more care than she was getting living alone in an apartment here in Cooperstown. We then helped her move first in October of 2007 to Welcome Home in Richfield Springs and then again in June of 2008 to Marchand Manor in Sharon Springs. We used to joke that she was working her way through all the ``Springs’’ in New York State. However, we did tell her that when she got to Saratoga Springs she was going to be on her own.

That, of course, never came to pass and we finally moved her, for the last time in August of this year, to Otsego Manor.

Throughout all of these moves we were able to still join Dorothy once a week for lunch, first at the Tally-Ho in Richfield Springs, then at My Sister’s Place in Sharon Springs, and finally at Otsego Manor here in Cooperstown. We always enjoyed our lunches with Dorothy and we will be eternally grateful for what she taught us about accepting with good humor those changes in one’s life that occur as part of the aging process.

She graciously embraced each step of her journey towards her goal of life everlasting with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She now dwells with the angels and we are the poorer for it.

In closing, our quote this week comes from The Book of Job, Chapter 1, Verse 20, which says ``...the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.’’ And even though we find it hard to accept, we do know it is as it was meant to be.

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