Thirwood Place News: The Many Stories of Pat Loan

Coming Back to Thirwood

Pat Loan and her husband Jim are two of our Independent Living residents and their story is unique. Pat and Jim came to Thirwood years ago living in the Village for five years. At that time, their son decided to invest in his retirement early and purchase a home in Harwich. He was still working so he asked his parents if they would be able to live in the house for him before he settled into retirement. They agreed and then five more years passed. It was time for their son to take over and Pat and Jim decided to move back to Thirwood Place.

Pat expresses that she and Jim were very happy with their decision and still felt like they had friends from their previous years at Thirwood. At Thirwood Place, Pat was known for her love of knowledge and trading ideas with others. Her passion for connection over shared knowledge led to the development of a very special Thirwood Place magazine called Now and Then, in addition to a WWII Remembrance Book that sits in the Library of Congress. We’ll go into more detail on those a little later but first, let’s talk about Pat’s background.

From Teacher to Digital

Pat’s career started as a wife and mother. After getting married to her husband Jim she decided to attend college and become a teacher due to the flexible hours. She would even bring her two children to class with her while she was in school.

Pat was a teacher for seven years. She also did incredibly inspiring things during her time as a teacher. For example, teaching a 16-year-old in seventh grade with a learning disability how to read. She was given the opportunity to design a class for 16 students who were failing. Her goal was to get them up to speed so they could continue their education.

She notes that to was mainly kids without great reputations because they were already struggling so much. Needless to say, this definitely shook things up for Pat at school. It seems like most of the other teachers Pat worked with weren’t particularly supportive of this endeavor. Nevertheless, she continued and helped improve the lives of her students.

Transitioning to Digital

After some time, Pat felt a career change was on the horizon. Her desire for new knowledge seems to be an inspiration for growth for Pat. At this time, her husband worked at the Digital Equipment Corporation. A high-tech company that was number two after IBM from the early 1960s to the early 1990s. According to Inspire IP they “played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of computing.”

She was struggling to find work in any department of Digital Equipment because she was a teacher. Due to her resume, employers feared she might want to unionize. Finally, one woman gave her a chance though and offered her a position as her secretary.

The way the company was structured at the time, anyone starting a new position had to stay in that role for a full year. Her boss told her she wouldn’t hold her to that. Starting her role as a secretary, she soon discovered there wasn’t enough work to keep her occupied. Because of this, she started doing research on compensation. It was interesting to her because companies are competitive about how they pay their engineers. Tech companies don’t want to lose good engineers due to their salary. Pat saw the need and value of this type of information, so she began going to other companies to speak with compensation managers. She had no background in this field, but she did the research and was willing to learn and grow.

Time to Grow!

Finally, an opening at her company was made in Compensation. But there were more experienced people who were also going for the job. She was urged to apply anyway and it’s good she did because she ultimately was given the position. Although Pat feels like a lot of things in her life have happened due to luck, it’s also very clear that she’s passionate about what she does and has an amazing work ethic.

After eleven years at Digital Equipment, she was a ground personnel manager. She had a software engineering group of 3,000 people worldwide. She even got to travel in a corporate jet. The journey of Pat’s career is nothing short of inspiring. We are lucky she brought her work ethic to Thirwood Place because amazing things have happened since her arrival.

The Magazine, Now and Then

Now, let’s get back to some of the things Pat has done during her time at Thirwood Place. First, we’ll begin with the publication of the magazine Now and Then. Upon coming to Thirwood Place and meeting new people around dinner and the community center, Pat realized that the residents of Thirwood had so many incredible stories to share. All these incredible stories were accumulated and published in a magazine.

Not only did this magazine give residents a creative outlet, but it allowed more residents to get to know each other on a deeper level. All of the stories in this publication are so personal and special in their own way. They gave you a peak into what a resident’s life looked like during a certain period.

Stories ranged from personal intimate family memories to funny adventures and there’s even a story involving meeting Babe Ruth. Our residents have led incredible lives, and Pat could see this immediately. When you’re surrounded by such incredible people it’s almost impossible not to relate over life experiences.

World War II Remembrances

What started as a publication that would allow residents to get to know each other better ultimately resulted in something greater. After many stories were shared and connections were made, many of the residents realized they connected over the impact of World War II.

When it came to memories related to the war, some residents were reluctant to share their stories. Now these stories range from the periods before, during and after the war. Pat remembers her old friend and Thirwood resident Frank Hynes being a huge support for her getting the book published.

According to an article that was published in Wicked Local in 2015, Pat expressed that “this is what this generation experienced… We have a story from a person who was at Pearl Harbor during the attack… We have a person who was a prisoner of war in Germany. We have a nurse who, when she left the service, was a lieutenant commander.”

The stories in this book range from the years 1936 to 1953 and are told from the perspectives of nurses, military men, and civilians. This project was extremely cathartic for our residents. A group of people conditioned not to speak of their wartime experiences because they just wanted to move on and get back to life as usual.

According to the Wicked Local article, “Participating in the project opened the floodgates for many, releasing memories long unacknowledged.”

The best part of the story is that the Thirwood Place WWII Remembrance book is actually at The Library of Congress. Pat is nothing short of an inspiration for the work she’s done at Thirwood Place that not only educates but brings people together.

Sapiens and the Need for Knowledge at Thirwood Place

The WWII Remembrance was published in 2015. You might be asking yourself, well what is Pat up to now? Well, she is still bringing the residents of Thirwood Place together through the activity of sharing knowledge, discussions, and stories.

Pat is currently leading a discussion group for the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. When asked what the inspiration behind starting a discussion group for this book was, Pat expressed that she “was inspired by how much information was in the book and how easily it was put together.”

Pat felt like she needed a group with which to discuss those topics. She wanted to learn and share knowledge with others just as she’d done her entire life. So, Pat sent out a note and to her delight, other residents were interested! So many in fact that initially they had to split the group up. Pat was so taken aback by the fact that other residents spent the money to buy the book as well. She appreciated that her idea required a little homework from others. Ultimately, it was worth it because of how much Pat and other residents get out of these discussions.

Inspiration for Discussion

Each week, Pat provides discussion questions related to the excerpt assigned. When asked where she finds the inspiration for discussion questions this was her response: I annotate and then go back and read what I’ve underlined. “She also expressed that her “best thoughts come in the middle of the night.” So, she’ll get up and write down her ideas, so she won’t forget.

Now that the group is almost done with Sapiens the next discussions will revolve around a DVD series. Pat has entitled it “The Great Courses: American 1989-2020.” With this medium, each discussion day will involve a 30-minute viewing of the DVD and then a 30-minute discussion to follow. When asked how she stays inspired to keep these groups going, Pat said she can’t do anything without putting her whole heart and soul into it. It makes sense why these groups have such a great turnout.

Still Story Telling: Meet Your Neighbor

Pat’s latest endeavor at Thirwood Place combines socializing with her love for storytelling and sharing knowledge. Sundays are quiet at Thirwood. Pat felt the need to liven things up by starting Meet Your Neighbor. Previously she was able to share residents’ stories through her magazine Now and Then. Now she’s doing something similar with a new more social format.

Once a month on Sundays at 5pm, residents come and listen and or share personal stories from their life. According to Pat, some residents were reluctant at first. But, after hearing how nice an experience it was more and more people began to show up.

We are incredibly lucky to have residents like Pat who go out of their way to bring people together even during tough times.