When the White Birch Center in Henniker began inviting its members to reflect on life lessons through a portrait series, the first artwork to be hung on the wall belonged to Louise French.
At 93, French is the center’s most lively member. She advises younger generations in her portrait to make the most of their lives, ignoring naysayers who might pass judgment on them.
She has been visiting the center for two decades as a way to stay socially and physically active, volunteering her time as an usher, greeting other members and testing her own ability to remember their names.
Rusty Gage, the center’s director of active living, calls French the “cruise director.”
“She’s going to be 94 this year, and she never skips a beat,” he said.
The White Birch Center encompasses a childcare and early learning facility on Hall Avenue and a second location on Main Street providing services and fostering community among seniors, youth and families.
Its ‘Active living for seniors’ program engages older adults in different activities, including yoga and fitness classes, as well as woodworking workshops, coloring, knitting, card games and board games. Seniors take field trips to bowling alleys, museums, live shows and the beach, and they can rely on the center for transportation to medical appointments scheduled in advance.
French sits in a circle across from the instructor of a weekly yoga class as they guide the group through different stretches and deep breaths.
In 2004, after her husband passed away, French searched for a pastime that would get her out of the house. She started attending exercise classes with her neighbor and reaping the added benefit of staying physically active.
Credit: GEOFF FORESTER / For the Monitor
“I know that, probably, I would not be walking now if I wasn’t doing these classes,” she said.
From there, her involvement with the center only expanded.
These days, she helps wherever she is needed. She puts up chairs, mails calendars and plans events, including preparing food for the center’s hot dog cookout every other Friday during the summer. On day trips, she assists and guides members onto buses.
She has dressed up as Rudolph to sing Christmas Carols and Sonny for the center’s ’70s sing-along night.
“When she sees that there’s a hole that needs to be filled, she fills it, doesn’t ask, just does it,” Gage said. “She is absolutely my right-hand woman by every definition of the word.”
French grew up on a farm in Weare, doing chores and building a strong work ethic. Her childhood unfolded during the Great Depression, when it was uncommon for women to have their own career outside the home, but hard work was always a fact of life.
After graduating high school in 1950, she got married, started a family and became a stay-at-home mother until her children were in college. Then, as an empty nester, she began to pick up waitressing shifts and office-cleaning jobs.
“Because I was raised on a farm and I pretty much always worked there with my folks,” she said. “It was not one of those things where your folks gave you everything. You worked for it.”
The time she spends at the White Birch Center, as an integral community member and a volunteer, doesn’t feel like work, she said.
“I enjoy helping people all the time,” French said. “I think that’s always been part of my life, if I see somebody that needs some help or if somebody is struggling with something, I just think of it as something that’s normal to do.”
