Kennedy honors Lynn trio with citations, certificate of appreciation

LYNN – The good old USA was not the only one celebrating a birthday on the Fourth of July.Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy handed out two citations and a certificate of appreciation to two women who each turned 90 and one who turned 101 all on the Fourth of July.”Do I deserve all this?” asked Beatrice Spreadbury after receiving a citation, a rose and a kiss from Kennedy.”You do,” Kennedy replied.Spreadbury’s daughter, Priscilla Giguere, wanted to do something special for her mother in honor of her 90th birthday so she contacted Kennedy’s office and requested a citation.Spreadbury is a lifelong Lynner as were her parents and grandparents. Her great grandparents, the Titcombs, founded the town of Newbury.”I grew up in West Lynn,” she said.She graduated Classical High School in 1941, married and raised seven children all in Lynn as well, Giguere added.And along the way Spreadbury got a degree in nursing, which is where she found her real passion.”I was a nurse for 40 years at Lynn Hospital, until they threw me out,”she said with a laugh. “I loved everything about it. The sicker they were the more I liked it – it was a challenge.”Spreadbury said she started out as a nurse’s aide but eventually became a registered nurse and spent most of her career as an emergency room nurse.”I remember the stories,” Giguere said. “We grew up on the stories, sitting around the dinner table.”When Lynn Hospital closed Spreadbury moved over to Union Hospital and at one point even worked as a nurse at Deer Island Prison.”The prisoners loved it when I was on because I brought them cookies,” Spreadbury said.After Spreadbury retired from the hospital she continued on as a part time private nurse. Her daughter joked that sometimes when her mom was on the job it was difficult to tell who was the patient and who was the aid.Kennedy visited Spreadbury at LifeCare where she now resides. The visit, the citation and the attention were quite a surprise, Spreadbury said.”I’m still in shock,” she said. “I don’t think I deserve this.”Kennedy disagreed and told Spreadbury it was an honor to make the presentation to her.After meeting Spreadbury, Kennedy also bestowed a certificate of appreciation on the equally surprised Florence Griffin and just hours before that handed Jeanette Kallery a citation in honor of her 101st birthday.”It’s my honor,” Kennedy said.In a thank you note to Kennedy, Giguere said the Mayor’s office and LifeCare’s combined efforts did much more than bring a few moments of happiness to her mother.”It served to validate and solidify how much she is loved and respected; and not just by her children,” she wrote. “It also made her recognize how much she means to the city of Lynn and, just as importantly, what the city means to her.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].