A golden symbol of life's journey

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on August 29, 2008

When Gertrude Abrams worked at the Buffalo News, she helped the newspaper disseminate election results by typing the vote totals on slides that were projected on the building across the street.

That was the 1920s and Abrams has come a long way since. At 101 years old, she's lived longer than anyone else in Amherst.

In recognition of the fact, Town Manager Larry Shaffer presented her with The Boston Post Cane, a tradition established in 1909 when Boston Post publisher Edwin A. Grozier distributed 700 14-carat gold-headed cane to 700 towns in New England to be given to the oldest male citizen. Eligibility was extended to women in 1930.

About 30 of Abrams' fellow residents and staff, her daughter and son-in-law and niece watched as Shaffer gave Abrams the cane Monday at The Arbors at Amherst on University Drive.

Shaffer described the cane as a symbol of "travel, the respect and the journey." A cane helps the traveler make her way along the path and ward of danger, Shaffer said.

"She's the person in our town who has journeyed the longest," he said of Abrams, who looked trim and fit in white pants and a turquoise blouse. "I asked Mrs. Abrams, how do you get to 101? And she said, you have to get to 100 first."

Nancy Pagano, director of the Senior Center, said cane recipients must have lived in Amherst for at least 10 years. The actual cane will remain in the town's possession, although Abrams will be able to keep it for a month or two to show to friends.

Agreeing to a resident's request that she give a little speech, Abrams said, "These 20 years have been wonderful." She thanked the people she has been close to, including her daughter Linda Abrams and son-in-law Bob Miltz, of Amherst, and her niece Elaine Bloom and husband Larry Bloom, who split their time between Florida and Ware. "They've made my life very pleasant and happy."

"She's always taking very nicely about other residents," Karen Walters-Zucco, executive director of the Arbors, said of Abrams, adding, "Doesn't she look fabulous?"

In an interview, Abrams said she was born in Buffalo, moving to the small upstate New York town of Hamburg in 1940 with her husband, Henry Abrams, a German immigrant who had owned a grocery store, shoe store and ended up with a movie theater.

She had had to quit the Buffalo News, when she married in keeping with the custom of the day. "Well, the men didn't have jobs," she said.

She went back to work as a secretary at the elementary school in Hamburg, where the children called her Aunt Gertie, after her husband died in 1954, retiring 18 years later.

After moving to Amherst, Abrams lived in an apartment on Hallock Street for five years and at the Clark House for 14 years before moving to The Arbors a year ago.

"I told her for the first 100 years, she can cook for herself and after that someone can do it for you," Miltz joked. Abrams had been a fabulous cook, her relatives agreed, specializing in dishes like lamb with caraway seeds and German potato salad.

"What I loved to do is bake cookies in my daughter's beautiful kitchen and I didn't have to clean up afterwards," Abrams said.

"Do you want to know what I like about Amherst?" she asked. "The first thing I did when I came here is I went to the Jones Library. I love to read."

Now, she can't see well enough to read but she listens to books on tape.

"I really think one place to meet people is the Senior Center in Amherst," she said. She used to enjoy playing bridge there.

"Amherst has such a variety of places," Abrams said. "Even a walk downtown was interesting."

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.