Ann Simms loved to drive.
She says she was born behind a steering wheel and had a lead foot. She drove her motor home around for years, and she continued to drive it even after her husband of more than 50 years, Charles, died in 1993.
Simms was also an early volunteer for Dial-A-Ride, a taxi service-like program that, to this day, offers free rides for seniors in the Hopkinton, Contoocook and Concord regions who no longer drive. Doctors’ appointments, pharmacy visits and grocery shopping are high on the clients’ list of needs.
Simms and others on the all-volunteer staff were honored last week at the annual Dial-A-Ride appreciation day. And while she was there, Simms received the Boston Post Cane, a historical symbol that’s awarded in towns and communities throughout New England to the areas’ oldest residents.
Simms is 101.
“I miss it every day, I miss getting behind that wheel,” Simms said. “I always said I should have been a truck driver.”
Instead, she raised three boys, worked part-time at a middle school in New Jersey, gardened and never met a women’s club she didn’t like. She began driving in this local, all-volunteer group shortly after arriving in the Granite State from New Jersey when she was 60.
She no longer drives but considers herself deeply ingrained in a public service that began in 1979. Just about the time she and Charles moved to the Suncook Valley.
“We moved across the street from (the headquarters) and I was always active,” Simms said. “I said, ‘Sign me up.’ I love, love, love to drive. It’s my second nature to drive.”
She added, “I had a lot of interesting experiences,” including one sun-drenched September day 21 years ago.
“I think I had the radio on in the car and I pulled into a community center,” Simms said. “I was like, ‘What happened, what happened?’ I was told we were attacked.”
Her driving skills around this time, in 2001, had remained sharp and stayed that way into her 70s and 80s and for a spell in her 90s.
Said Sue Stickford, a longtime friend and former colleague in the informal chauffeur business, “She’s very sharp, great sense of humor. She is dignified. A wonderful friend, and if she hasn’t heard from someone for a while, she’ll call us to make sure everything is okay.”
Strickford is another shining example of senior independence. She’s 77 and still drives around the elderly. She had a customer scheduled for later in the afternoon this week and another on Friday.
“When I retired, I wanted to do something to make a difference,” Strickford said, “and this has been rewarding.”
She’ll be hard-pressed, however, to work the number of years that Simms did. She helped her clients into cars or held their walkers or canes as they slid into the passenger seats.
90? No problem.
She’s slowed down in recent years. Of course she has. She’s lost a lot of her eyesight from macular degeneration. Her legs hurt.
A few years ago, a doctor told Simms her driving days were over. “I tossed the keys to Bob,” Simms said.
Bob is her lone child in a family that has endured unspeakable tragedy. Simms’s husband, Charles, died almost 30 years ago, and she’s also lost two sons along the way.
Her third son, Bob, moved in with Simms this week from Illinois, leaving his job and his family temporarily to make sure his mother can continue to live independently. She needs help.
She’s strong enough, though, to attend the day set aside each year to thank the stable of volunteer drivers. Once, a local truck driver leaned out his window and yelled to Simms, “Slow down, Ann.”
“I never got a speeding ticket,” Simms said proudly. “Not once.”