Jane Fallon of Scituate learned the art of friendship as a young girl and at age 95 she still sows the seeds.
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SCITUATE – A week before her 95th birthday, Jane Fallon’s grandson arrived to take her out to lunch but Brian Fallon of Peabody didn’t head for the Mill Wharf Restaurant as usual.
“There’s a new special I heard about at the VFW Hall,” he said. Puzzled but game, Fallon walked into the hall to find 100 family and friends calling out “Surprise! Happy Birthday!”
From all corners of her life, they showed how friendships nurtured with warmth and generosity keep paying dividends.
“I’ve always thought everyone should have a Jane Fallon in their life!” Cindy Moore of Hingham said. “It’s always fun with Jane, no matter what you are doing. That’s her secret.”
Since turning 95 on Dec. 4, Fallon finds life busier than ever. “I have had two new great-grandchildren in the past month and lots of baby sitting for the rest,” she wrote in her holiday card. “How lucky can we be? ”
Born in Lynn, she has lived in Scituate since age two and is a 1940 graduate of Scituate High School where she captained the girls field hockey and tennis teams. She graduated from Burdette Business School, worked for John Hancock Co., raised seven children and then worked as town treasurer for 20 years. She has 12 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
I met her last year when she had reunited with Jean O’Neil, 87, of Braintree after 65 years and three other younger friends. Recently, she arranged another get-together of the group, treated everyone to lunch and invited them back to her house for dessert: homemade pastry puffs topped with Brigham’s ice cream and hot fudge sauce she had also made and served.
I was also invited and was intrigued to see how how friendships formed along very different pathways have lasted and created new connections.
Fallon was the office manager at the John Hancock Co. in Quincy in the late 1940s and 1950s. She hired O’Neil, fresh out of Quincy High School in 1947, and often invited her secretarial staff down to Scituate for beach outings and cookouts.
Mary Carroll of Kingston has known Fallon almost as long as O’Neil. In 1966, her family moved in across the street from where Fallon still lives with her daughter Pat Douglas.
“Mrs. Fallon had seven children and my mom had seven too,” Carroll said. “There were enough of us to always put together a baseball or football game. In the summer Mrs. Fallon would load us into her station wagon and take us to The Spit for an after dinner swim. She would take us blueberry picking.
“I love being around her – she is so positive and never passes up the opportunity to have fun. She is a wonderful role model.”
Carroll remained a neighbor until 2011 and now lives in Kingston, where she works at Sacred Heart School. Fallon’s grandson Ryan O’Connor happens to be a student there.
Cindy Moore of Hingham met Fallon in the 1980s. Each was first assistant treasurer and then treasurer in their towns. The town treasurers all socialized together and they became friends. “Jane and I learned to play golf together, we never took a lesson back then, just went out and had fun,” Moore said.
Barbara O’Neil, who is Jean O’Neil’s daughter and also lives in Braintree, met Carroll in the 1990s when they worked at Reebok in Canton. And Carroll met Moore because both were avid South Shore runners. Last year the three younger women realized they each had a connection to Fallon.
At Fallon’s house, all five stood before an old photograph of Fallon’s grandparents, named Fennerty, and her parents in Lynn. They chatted with such enthusiasm and humor it was as if they were all related. “This is your grandfather? He’s handsome! He looks like a movie star or a politician,” Barbara O’Neil said. “He talked a lot, I know that,” Fallon replied with a chuckle. Later she quipped, “We’re looking at antiques.”
On Feb. 4, she leaves for a month in Florida to celebrate her sister’s 97th birthday and to play golf with her son and grandson.
UPDATE -- Congratulations to Angie Spiropoulos on her 80th birthday Jan. 18 when, like any other day, she went to work -at her own business, the Quincy Tailor Shop, at 512 Washington Street in Quincy Point. “Why retire?” she said. She has owned the shop for 36 years and still enjoys what she does.
Reach Sue Scheible at scheible@ledger.com, 617-786-7044, or The Patriot Ledger, P.O. Box 699159, Quincy 02269-9159. Read her Good Age blog on our website. Follow her on Twitter @ sues_ledger.