MANCHESTER, NH – Laura Pelletier has spent her whole life as a Manchester girl – born in 1920 and raised in the hamlet of Pinardville, Laura still has a bit of fire in her eyes – even though she can’t see much of anything anymore.
Her caregivers describe her as “sharp as a tack,” and have enjoyed her many stories of life in Manchester, where she worked in a shoe factory, and her adventures as a singing cowgirl at the Lone Star Ranch in Merrimack – she recently demonstrated her yodeling skills during a nursing home talent show.
In her younger days, Laura played a mean guitar and could yodel with the best of them.
So it really surprised no one who knows her musical history that on the occasion of her 104th birthday on Aug. 5 Laura felt moved to bust out one of her favorite songs, “Sittin’ on Top of the World,” followed by some freestyle yodeling [see the video below].
Laura was honored Monday by friends, family and fellow residents of Mt. Carmel Rehab & Nursing Center during the monthly sing-along session led by Marlena Phillips in the common room. There was a big sheet cake – half-chocolate, her favorite – trimmed with Laura’s favorite color – blue. Barbara Gray, activities director at Mt. Carmel, read a proclamation from the mayor. Her great-nephew, Sean Claypool, and his wife, Edie, brought some of Laura’s other favorite things – Dove chocolates, and a large vase of summer flowers.
Laura has been a resident of the nursing home for about two years – Claypool says she was living fine on her own until a broken hip followed by another one meant she couldn’t get around the way she always did.
“My uncle died in 1989 so she lived on her own all those years. Even after she lost her sight she still managed,” said Claypool, who’s mémé is Laura’s kid sister, Rita Cote, who at 91 was unable to make it to the party, although she had planned to.
However several friends that Laura has collected over the years during her time living on President Road did make it there.
“Laura lived across the highway and we’d always see her walking – she loved walking,” said Jackie Merrihew, who was swapping stories with Gloria Pelletier (no relation to Laura) whose mother, Rose Bilodeau, was Laura’s neighbor for more than 30 years.
Karen Foskitt met Laura by happenstance, and says over the years Laura filled the gap in her life she experienced after losing her own mother.
“Laura is my heart now. When I hug her I feel my mom,” Karen said. She had passed by Laura’s house on he way to work at Ryder and always took note of the lady who was gardening or walking around the neighborhood. Then one day she noticed Laura’s yard was looking a bit ragged, and Laura was absent. A month later Laura was back in the yard and so Karen pulled into her driveway.
“I told her that I got worried when I didn’t see her, and I just wanted to tell her that I was glad to see she was back. That was 25 years ago,” said Karen, who visits Laura regularly at Mt. Carmel, as does Gloria and her husband, Mario, Rose and Jackie.
“My mother used to take her to church every Sunday, to Blessed Sacrement,” said Gloria. If the Red Sox were playing she kind of hated to go to Mass but she went – reluctantly, and would hurry back to see them play,” she said.
Gloria pulled out her phone and showed off a photo that hangs in Laura’s room at the nursing home. It’s 18-year-old Laura dressed in an outfit made for her by her sister. She’s holding a guitar and wearing her “yodeling hat.”
Karen said that Laura’s house on President Road was recently razed to make way for a commercial parking lot. There were still some items left behind and languishing in the house. After leaving notes on the door of her interest in some items – knowing it was set for demolition – she took what she wanted, for sentimental reasons.
“I took the heart that was hanging on her front door and the wind chimes. And I took a work bench from her porch where she did her flowers, and two rusting urns,” Karen said. “And then I saw something sticking up so I pulled it and it was this hat,” she says of a big-brimmed black hat that is a dead-ringer for the yodeling hat 18-year-old Laura is wearing in the photograph.
“I had to wash it but I’m sure it’s the hat from the photo,” Karen said, a perfect gift for a 104th birthday celebration.
“Laura, I think this is your yodeling hat,” Karen said as she placed it into Laura’s hands. “There’s a buckle, here,” she said. Laura felt for the buckle and ran her fingers around the brim as she placed the hat on her head and touched the soft edges gently with her fingers.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But I like it.”
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