Jean C. Ritcey

From the Halls of Montezuma: Now Hear This!

Jean was born in August of 1922 in a house out near where the 95 cloverleaf creates the Neponset Street exit. Always a Norwood girl, she attended all those schools that have now been turned into something else. And she did approve of the new version of the beautiful old Norwood high school.

The middle child of Scottish born parents, she curiously still spoke with a Scottish accent...stereotypically....ahh....thrifty with her money and please, let there be no confusion; forever a Robertson! Always a feisty personality from beginning to end....story goes that,in elementary school, she gave a boy a grade above her a bloody nose and the ensuing black eye when he pulled her long, braided red hair. Her mother told me that story. Don't tread on Me.

Jean always loved to sing....Had to sing...went to church to sing in the choir. When she became unsatisfied with the choir director, she moved to another church; another choir. It was all about the singing. She would sing around her kids and when she was alone. I fondly recall her singing, Roberta Flack's version of the First Time I Ever Saw Your Face spontaneously after she and I had climbed to the top of a mountain in New Hampshire.....so inspired she was by the spectacular view of the Presidential Range. That was truly impressive. She played the piano and horns.

Graduated from Norwood High in '40' and soon thereafter joined the US Marines. She would always identify as a Marine thereafter; archetype revealed, title proudly claimed; a step forward every day, no excuses, no complaints... Always a positive attitude and determined to accomplish her tasks. If she had been born into the dramatically increased opportunities of her children's Boomer generation, she would've been an attorney or accountant or, being adroit with her money, an investment professional.

After the Big War, she married the new guy from Nova Scotia, who sat in front of her in homeroom senior year. They lived in the Browns apartment on Florence Avenue for a couple of years before moving to the countryside in Walpole. A new house that she still lived in, a couple of kids, a couple of decades working as an executive secretary in Boston for Kendall, spending most weekends doing something her husband wanted to do.... Not one to sit around, she always got in her exercise. Never took any meds until she was 90. Legally blind and having limited use of both of her arms in her 80s, she still got things done and I never could figure out how she did it. 'I'm OK, I can do it myself.' No complaints. Drive on! She just kept marching forward until she just couldn't. The parts just plain wore out.

She loved her children.. and her grandchildren. She was always there for us. Never, never any doubt about that.

After a discouraging glimpse of the miserable, institutionalized AmericanWayOfDeath, at a local rehab mill, we brought her back home. Consistent with her adamant wish to die in her house with her clan, she did so peacefully on Sunday morning 28 February 2016. Thank you, Mom. We love you.