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SalemNews.com, Salem, MA - Joyful homecoming Residents return to Homes for the Deaf after terrifying evacuation
When Josephine Morris arrived in her bedroom yesterday for the first time in two months, she was most relieved to find the pictures of her grandchildren, which she located in a box and immediately lined back up on her night table.
Morris was among 56 deaf and deaf-blind seniors who returned home yesterday to the New England Homes for the Deaf after being displaced by a chemical plant explosion in November. None of them heard the blast on Thanksgiving Eve, and the blind residents couldn't see it either. But everyone felt it, as they described yesterday.
"It scared me, it really scared me," Morris, 91, said through an interpreter. She recalled the blast with wide eyes and sweeping gestures to mimic an explosion.
But residents said yesterday's homecoming wasn't about the traumatic event that displaced so many Danversport residents. For them, it was about returning to a unique community they have called home for years and, in some cases, decades.
"I am so happy. I am so relieved to be back," said Lois Finocchiaro, 83, who has lived at the Homes for the Deaf for 18 years. She and her husband, Henry, 82, are both deaf and blind.
The couple communicate by pressing their hands into each other's palms and feeling the sign language, the way Helen Keller did. Every day, Henry Finocchiaro reads the Braille version of the newspaper and signs entire articles into his wife's hands. Yesterday, he called her "my better half ... my other half."
Surrounded by clicking cameras, TV news crews and questioning reporters - none of whom the Finocchiaros could hear or see - the couple nestled next to each other and smiled as they sat in the community room, which looks out across the river at the site where the explosion occurred. All of the windows and doors had to be replaced, among various other furniture, mattresses and curtains potentially embedded with glass.
"This is a wonderful place, I'm telling you," Lois Finocchiaro said through an interpreter. "I am smiling from ear to ear today."
As seniors climbed out of vans at the Water Street complex yesterday morning and went inside, staff members greeted them with hugs, smiles, waves and cheers and used the sign language signal for applause. Nurses, administrators and cooks snapped photos and wiped away tears. Many of the residents use canes or walkers or are in wheelchairs.
An unfinished puzzle lay on a table in one of the lounges on the ground floor. The residents had been working on it before the explosion, and the remaining pieces were scattered, waiting to be picked up where they left off.
"It's kind of symbolic," said Dr. Andrew Baker of Danvers, a deaf optometrist who works at Mass Eye and Ear in Boston and treats patients at the Homes for the Deaf. Baker was at the front door yesterday, embracing residents in his tall frame as they returned home.
"Danvers is very proud to have such a special home for these people," Baker said. "We've been through a lot. The good thing is that we all work really, really well together."
Long haul
Since the explosion, most of the residents temporarily lived at the Essex Park Nursing Home in Beverly, which coincidentally had an empty wing ready for renovation that the Homes for the Deaf was able to use. Five residents stayed at a nursing home in Haverhill, and two others went to a nursing home in Lexington, while a few people stayed with family members.
"It was very difficult for them to be relocated to an environment they weren't familiar with," said Barry Zeltzer, executive director of the New England Homes for the Deaf. "It was fascinating to see how they were able to get around like that."
The Homes for the Deaf - a nonprofit agency founded in 1901 - is one of two nursing home/retirement communities for the deaf in the United States, according to Zeltzer. The other one is in Columbus, Ohio, he said. The Homes for the Deaf offers assisted living and skilled nursing and has independent-living apartments.
"It was a tremendous crisis and a long haul to get them back here," said Zeltzer, who said one final resident is expected to return today. "But so many people helped out. We feel grateful and thankful right now."
The main building took two months to repair but didn't suffer any structural damage because it is only a few years old and was built with concrete and steel, Zeltzer said. The independent-living apartments, called Thompson House, received the least damage, and its 24 residents were able to move back the weekend after the Nov. 22 explosion.
"The social life here is very unique," said Morris' daughter, Barbara Walburn, of Beverly. Morris and her late husband, Phillip, lived in one of the apartments for 10 years before she moved to the nursing home last year. The organization offers bingo, cards, crafts, exercise and dances, and all the staff members must know sign language, Zeltzer said.
"I think it's keeping them young," Walburn said.
"It's true," her mother agreed with a grin, as she wheeled herself out of her room, wearing a red sweatshirt with sparkly snowmen, to join her friends downstairs. "I'm just excited to be living here."
When Josephine Morris arrived in her bedroom yesterday for the first time in two months, she was most relieved to find the pictures of her grandchildren, which she located in a box and immediately lined back up on her night table.
Morris was among 56 deaf and deaf-blind seniors who returned home yesterday to the New England Homes for the Deaf after being displaced by a chemical plant explosion in November. None of them heard the blast on Thanksgiving Eve, and the blind residents couldn't see it either. But everyone felt it, as they described yesterday.
"It scared me, it really scared me," Morris, 91, said through an interpreter. She recalled the blast with wide eyes and sweeping gestures to mimic an explosion.
But residents said yesterday's homecoming wasn't about the traumatic event that displaced so many Danversport residents. For them, it was about returning to a unique community they have called home for years and, in some cases, decades.
"I am so happy. I am so relieved to be back," said Lois Finocchiaro, 83, who has lived at the Homes for the Deaf for 18 years. She and her husband, Henry, 82, are both deaf and blind.
The couple communicate by pressing their hands into each other's palms and feeling the sign language, the way Helen Keller did. Every day, Henry Finocchiaro reads the Braille version of the newspaper and signs entire articles into his wife's hands. Yesterday, he called her "my better half ... my other half."
Surrounded by clicking cameras, TV news crews and questioning reporters - none of whom the Finocchiaros could hear or see - the couple nestled next to each other and smiled as they sat in the community room, which looks out across the river at the site where the explosion occurred. All of the windows and doors had to be replaced, among various other furniture, mattresses and curtains potentially embedded with glass.
"This is a wonderful place, I'm telling you," Lois Finocchiaro said through an interpreter. "I am smiling from ear to ear today."
As seniors climbed out of vans at the Water Street complex yesterday morning and went inside, staff members greeted them with hugs, smiles, waves and cheers and used the sign language signal for applause. Nurses, administrators and cooks snapped photos and wiped away tears. Many of the residents use canes or walkers or are in wheelchairs.
An unfinished puzzle lay on a table in one of the lounges on the ground floor. The residents had been working on it before the explosion, and the remaining pieces were scattered, waiting to be picked up where they left off.
"It's kind of symbolic," said Dr. Andrew Baker of Danvers, a deaf optometrist who works at Mass Eye and Ear in Boston and treats patients at the Homes for the Deaf. Baker was at the front door yesterday, embracing residents in his tall frame as they returned home.
"Danvers is very proud to have such a special home for these people," Baker said. "We've been through a lot. The good thing is that we all work really, really well together."
Long haul
Since the explosion, most of the residents temporarily lived at the Essex Park Nursing Home in Beverly, which coincidentally had an empty wing ready for renovation that the Homes for the Deaf was able to use. Five residents stayed at a nursing home in Haverhill, and two others went to a nursing home in Lexington, while a few people stayed with family members.
"It was very difficult for them to be relocated to an environment they weren't familiar with," said Barry Zeltzer, executive director of the New England Homes for the Deaf. "It was fascinating to see how they were able to get around like that."
The Homes for the Deaf - a nonprofit agency founded in 1901 - is one of two nursing home/retirement communities for the deaf in the United States, according to Zeltzer. The other one is in Columbus, Ohio, he said. The Homes for the Deaf offers assisted living and skilled nursing and has independent-living apartments.
"It was a tremendous crisis and a long haul to get them back here," said Zeltzer, who said one final resident is expected to return today. "But so many people helped out. We feel grateful and thankful right now."
The main building took two months to repair but didn't suffer any structural damage because it is only a few years old and was built with concrete and steel, Zeltzer said. The independent-living apartments, called Thompson House, received the least damage, and its 24 residents were able to move back the weekend after the Nov. 22 explosion.
"The social life here is very unique," said Morris' daughter, Barbara Walburn, of Beverly. Morris and her late husband, Phillip, lived in one of the apartments for 10 years before she moved to the nursing home last year. The organization offers bingo, cards, crafts, exercise and dances, and all the staff members must know sign language, Zeltzer said.
"I think it's keeping them young," Walburn said.
"It's true," her mother agreed with a grin, as she wheeled herself out of her room, wearing a red sweatshirt with sparkly snowmen, to join her friends downstairs. "I'm just excited to be living here."