Title: didn’t know I was going to do it
Author: Michael Scott

didn’t know I was going to do it. But I was so mad, really, I was crying because I was angry. I thought it was so stupid of them.

Well, anyway, we got the money. And so we have FHA funds, and we have a forty—year mortgage, which the State Bank [State National Bank of Connecticut] is carrying. And every year we have to pay back this mortgage. We have to pay up our mortgage, or the FIIA will take the building over. And so that’s why we have to work hard to raise money each year.

We figured if the tenants paid the amount we asked, which includes room, meals, linen, furnishings if necessary, cleaning, and a minimum nursing care, we could make ends meet. The FHA puts a ceiling on rents. Unfortunately, only one third of our tenants are able to pay the full amount, and with good salaries and with everything going up, we are in dire need of help and depend on our wonderful friends each year to keep the doors open. We have been running at a terrible deficit. The reason we built the building was for people who need us, people with small incomes, if any. I knew this was going to happen, and all the men did, too, but I just talked them into it. I said, “If we get the thing built, I’m sure that Greenwich will help support it.” And so far they have, for everyone knows the great need for The Mews.

We get kind of scared sometimes, but we simply cannot fail these people at the end of the road. We’ve just sent out our brochure now, and we really have to raise a hundred thousand to keep going; and this year it’s going to be very difficult.

The Mews opened February, 1970, and never has had an empty room; and I think that most of the people have been happy.

We still have twenty of our first tenants with us, which goes to prove that with a little security and with somebody to care we live longer and happier lives. Only two have left us because they didn’t like it, and that’s pretty good out of the number of people that we’ve had.

One left us because she wasn’t happy here. She didn’t feel that the people were up to her standards or weren’t her kind of people, and she never would get along with them. She was kind of snooty, poor dear, and so she left. And just about a year ago I was suddenly thinking about her for no reason at all and I said, “I must check up on Mrs. So-and-So.” I just had a funny feeling about her. And the girls said, “Oh, don’t be silly. She didn’t like you and she didn’t like The Mews. Why do you worry?” I said, “I don’t know. I just worry about her. I think there’s something wrong with her.”

Well, something else came up, and I didn’t check up. I knew she was living right up here on the hill. I really meant to go because I had this funny feeling about her. Well, the day that I was thinking about her, she died in her apartment and wasn’t found for three days. And I always feel that somehow maybe she wished that she hadn’t left here. But whether that was so or not, I don’t know. It was strange, wasn’t it?

SMITH:	It certainly was.

ROCKEFELLER:	The Lord takes care of the Merry—Go-Round, because in the old days at the red house we used to get down to fifty cents in the

till. And my husband, who was a banker, would say, “Well, now you’re in the red. Why don’t you stop this nonsense?” 1 said, “No, we’ve got fifty cents; we’re not in the red yet.” And he said, “What are you going to do?” I said, “I don’t know, but I’m going to pray a little bit.” And sure enough, the next day we’d get a check, maybe fifty dollars, and then we’d go out and cater or do some work, which was a lot of fun. A lot of work, but we used to cater to make a little money.
We used to run so close to the wind it wasn’t funny. But we’d always end up with fifty cents. Really, literally, we’d get down to fifty cents in the till, and then we’d all get together and do some big thing and make a few more dollars. But we really ran on a shoestring. But you can’t run on a shoestring at The Mews. That’s a little bit more difficult to run.

SMITh:	No. Different problem.
/

ROCKEFELLER:	Yes. We have our capacity, seventy-one tenants, in The

Mews today; and every day one leaves, another comes. Ten men. The rest are women. And Mrs. Frank celebrated her hundred and first birthday in September.

SMITh:	Oh, my.

ROCKEFELLER:	Yes. And she is just as young as she can be. She broke her hip at ninety-seven and came through that, and we’re very proud of her. She is always called “The Spirit of The Mews” because of her will to live at that time that I told you about when she was so burned.
I worked at Nanthaniel Witherell during those years and was co-founder and first president of their auxiliary. I had become interested in 1928; and, as much as I could, I would go up by myself and see what I could do to help the patients. At Christmas I used to go dressed as Santa Claus and get friends to help me. And we would give each patient a stocking, and some kind of a party. Also, I remember my downfall up there because one day, dressed as Santa Claus with a big pillow in my tummy and a mask on, I was going through the men’s ward and I suddenly heard a great many giggles; and I couldn’t imagine what was the matter. But when I looked down, I saw that I had lost my pants, which I think gave them all great joy. And, if it did, I’m glad.

It was because of these Christmas parties that in 1956 Mrs. Rhett DuPont, a Gray Lady who worked there——she is now Mrs. John Howland——came to me one day. “I think we should have an auxiliary,” she said, and I agreed with her. So we started an auxiliary, which is going full blast now and has turned the Nathaniel Witherell Home

——it used to be called hospital, and it is now known as a home-—into really, I think, one of the best nursing homes in the country. And it was through the auxiliary that they have really humanized the place.

We were responsible for getting all the churches to give religious services at Nathaniel Witherell. They really became one of the most important programs at the home. We’ve had every denomination you can think of, even to the Quakers and Christian Scientists. Every single denomination has given its time, and it really means so much. I think this has been the biggest help we have been to the patients, for when you come to the end of the road, you certainly need faith and hope and comfort.

From having been on the auxiliary and having been interested in Nathaniel Witherell for so long I got the feeling, as many of the auxiliary did, that it was not a good setup. The Nathaniel Witherell was under the Board of Health. And the reason for that, I think, was because Mrs. Witherell gave the old building to the town in, I think, around 1916 or so in memory of her husband. She gave it as a hospital for contagious diseases and TB, and at that time there was no organization in town, I believe, to take over such a thing; and so it came under the Board of Health. Now the Board of Health is so organized that it is not up to them to run a hospital, but they had to do it. When we had the auxiliary started, Dr. Coffey was the Board of Health officer. He was very receptive to everything the auxiliary was doing and was a great help to us. And I think he felt, too, that there should be a separate organization running the hospital.

So Mr. Edward Greene, among others on the auxiliary, agreed with this idea. And we had a committee from the auxiliary which included Mr. Greene, Mrs. Earnshaw, Mr. Fred Stevenson, I think Mrs. Chamberlain, and myself. We went down to Mr. Lewis, the first selectman, and told him our feelings about it. And I think that he agreed. He must have, because he made it possible to change the setup. After about two or three years, a great deal of talk, and taking it before the RTM, we now have a board of seven which runs the hospital, but is responsible to the Town and to the Board of Estimate. The superintendent makes up the budget and goes over it with the board and then it is taken to Town Hall to be passed by the RTM.At least three years ago we had so many people who wanted to get into Nathaniel Witherell, such a long list and no place for them to go, that finally the Town agreed that we should build a wing. So five million five hundred thousand dollar’s was appropriated for this, which also included revamping the old building for office space, recreation, and doctors’ offices. The selectmen gave the names of five people to be okayed by the RTM to serve as a building committee. Mr. Peter Mitchell was made president. He, Mr. Frederic Stevenson, Mr. Hart Moore, Mr. Bruce Warwick, and myself were the five voting members. We had ex officio members from each of the departments in town. We had Dr. Kraus from the Board of Health. We had Mr. Imre deCholnoky from the RIM Building Committee. We had a member of the Board of Estimate, which changed several times, but Jirs. Arnaboldi was the last one named to the board. I think she took Mr. Hennessey’s place. Then we had Mr. Stauffer and Mr. Schinto and a few others.We met very often in the beginning. We had quite a time deciding on an architect, but there had been a previous building committee ahead of us who had gone into it very thoroughly. They had found a certain architect in New York whom they thought was very good. And, after we looked around, we finally decided that they had chosen wisely and so we picked Weiss, Whelan, Edelbaum and Webster, And for three years we worked hard over the renovation and building of the new wing.

I felt very strongly that we needed a chapel, because I knew how very much the patients felt about the services that they’d had over the years. So twenty—six thousand dollars was allotted in our budget for a chapel. After a while the architect gave us the planned layout for the chapel, and we realized that it would not take the fifty wheel chairs that we need. So we asked him to redo the plan and give us an estimate of how much the extra footage would cost. It was absolutely prohibitive. The builder came up with a hundred thousand dollars, which to all of us seemed absolutely ridiculous. And at one point we thought we would let it go until after Mr. Rich, the builder, was through, and then we would tackle it again on a separate contract. But it was pointed out to us that, because the chapel is between the two wings, it would mean tearing down two walls that are just being renovated now and that in the end it would cost us just as much, if not more.

So we continued; and the building committee said that they felt that they couldn’t go before the Board of Estimate and ask for more money for a chapel. And so I stuck my neck out and I said, “Okay. I feel it is so important-—and I work up here, and you all don’t realize the importance of it——so I will raise the extra money.’’ I had to raise seventy thousand dollars. I don’t know why I ever thought I could, but with Ed Greene’s help and the auxiliary’s help, we did it. And in April, ‘76, we laid the cornerstone for the Nathaniel Witherell Chapel, which everybody seemed to feel was just a wonderful thing for Nathaniel Witherell.

SMITH:	Isn’t that great!

ROCKEFELLER:	Well, that’s pretty exciting. But unfortunately nothing is perfect. We should have four hundred beds instead of two hundred because we have a waiting list of over a hundred people desperate to get in, and the list becomes longer as people live longer and Greenwich grows. It’s very difficult to get in for you have to wait until somebody dies.

We also need another Mews, because we have about fifty or sixty people waiting to get in here. And they call me up daily:

“When can I get my mother in?” “Well,” I say, “it’s in the hands of the Lord. When he takes somebody, your mother can get in; and I can’t kill people off to take your mother.” They just don’t seem to understand that.

And what we need now is a day care center, which I hope we can put into the old high school. I want them to save the whole former high school and put the day care center on the ground floor in the new wing, and the GREATS and AARP on the next floor--both ground level, which is a must for the elderly. Experts have seen the layout and say it is ideal; most accessible. Open space can be used in summer, making a wonderful senior citizen center with little expense.

SMITH:	This keeps you thinking ahead all the time, doesn’t it?

ROCKEFELLER:	Well, I think you have to keep ahead. I really enjoy every minute of the day, especially working at The Mews because we have such appreciative people here, and I’ve learned so much from their brave spirit, and I am truly fond of each one. Every day there’s something that comes up that’s either interesting, funny, or inspiring.

When they have to leave us, that’s very sad. There are not many Greenwich nursing homes to put them in. That’s another terrible thing. If we could take them from here and send them up to Nathaniel Witherell, it would be fine. But at the moment, even with the new wing, we have to send some far away from Greenwich. That means sending somebody who was born and brought up in Greenwich way up as far as Litchfield. And it’s so pitiful, because their families, if they have any, can’t get there, and the few people that are friends can’t get there. It’s really sad. We need another nursing home here very badly.

SMITH:	Well, it’s too bad this has to be the way it is at the ending of your life. But I think it’s so wonderful that they can be happy here and also in a lot of these facilities around town.

ROCKEFELLER:	Well, I think The Mews is a very happy home. We’ve had lots of funny things happen. There are many who have plenty of pep. We even have had fights, which shows they still are full of life.

SMITH:	Some spirit.

ROCKEFELLER:	Yes, they have wonderful spirit.

SMITH:	You deservedly were chosen the Clubwoman of the Year in 1964, wasn’t it?

ROCKEFELLER:	I don’t remember.

SMITH:	Well, I think it was a well-deserved honor.

ROCKEFELLER:	Well, I don’t know. I really love helping people because I really love them. I think that’s it. It’s been a great pleasure and satisfaction, and I wouldn’t have had it otherwise. I work because I love it.