When standing before a certain Forest Avenue home in Greenfield, one can hear a pleasant and soothing sound of moving water. The eye is drawn to a curved stone walkway that runs along a low stone wall surrounding a bed of plants in a shaded section under a flowering apple tree.
The fragrance of lilacs adds to the multi-sensory experience of visiting the home of Susan and Francis McMillan. A white picket fence provides balance in a yard admired by dog walkers, joggers and neighborhood children for its peaceful appeal. One might think the gorgeous landscaping and tasteful elements were initiated by someone for whom life has been easy and sweet. But a closer look at a special stone hints at the difficulties that helped inspire the idyllic scene.
Words of Amelia Earhart are carved into the stone: “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” Underneath the quote is engraved, “Francis S. McMillan, Vietnam War Veteran, Purple Heart Recipient.”
Francis McMillan, 75, likes to be called “Mac.” He rises around 4:30 a.m. and begins each day with household tasks before heading outside. Not a day goes by that he doesn’t improve or embellish elements of his home, and his handiwork is complemented and enhanced by the graceful decorating sensibilities of Susan, his wife of 30 years.
“This is how I stay sane. I keep thinking up ways to improve the yard and gardens,” said McMillan. He doesn’t go into great detail about what it’s like to live with PTSD, the post-traumatic stress disorder affecting so many who’ve experienced the horrors of war. But he’s candid about the fact that, for him, keeping busy is essential.
The beauty out front is just a fraction of the McMillans’ homegrown paradise. Behind their home exists an enchanted place, a whole other world, every bit of it built by Mac and decorated by Sue.
Next to an above-ground swimming pool sits a whimsical gazebo, adjacent to a hot tub. A few steps away, a fire pit is surrounded by comfortable chairs. Here, as in front, one is soothed by the sounds of moving water; several small ponds are fed by a waterfall.
A beautiful shed evokes scenes from fairy tales, and a smaller tool shed built to look like an old-fashioned outhouse — complete with a moon-shaped cut-out on the door — brings a chuckle.
There are graceful trellises, a cherry tree, a grape arbor, and a place to grill up summertime meals. In a Greenfield backyard, the concerns of everyday life begin to ebb, replaced by a sense of delightful calm.
“See that spiral staircase?” said McMillan. “They were getting rid of it at the private school where I did maintenance work and said I could have it. Once I had a spiral staircase, I thought I might as well build a second-story deck.”
That’s how McMillan’s mind works: nothing goes to waste, and even the most mundane object can be transformed into something beautiful that brings joy to others.
Stepping down the exterior spiral, one arrives at the entrance to what used to be a two-car garage but is now an apartment designed to house visiting family in comfort.
Susan McMillan (nee Miller) grew up in the home she shares with her husband. The house was built in 1904 by Susan’s grandfather, a mechanical engineer who designed tools for Millers Falls Tools.
“My father, John Graves Miller, was born upstairs in this house, in 1918. I could show you the bed he was born in,” said Susan McMillan. After attending college and serving in World War II, Susan’s father got a phone company job and married June Garry in 1952. They raised their two children in the Forest Avenue house.
After Susan McMillan’s father died in 1976, mother and daughter continued to share their home while Susan worked in elementary schools as a remedial reading and pre-school teacher.
Susan and Mac met through a mutual friend and were married in 1991. “The wedding was set for June, but Mac ended up moving in with Mom and me in January after the apartment building he lived in was destroyed in a fire.”
The 1991 wedding led to the 1992 birth of son Jesse, who has followed in his mom’s footsteps and become an educator. At age 26, Jesse McMillan was the youngest principal ever hired in Massachusetts, at New Hingham Regional Elementary School in West Chesterfield.
“Mom was delighted to have Mac join the family,” said Susan McMillan. “Not only could he fix anything, he was very respectful of her space and her needs.”
By the time he married Susan Miller, McMillan had worked in various trades, including carpentry and construction. He was eager to work on his new residence, yet did not want to overwhelm his new mother-in-law by appearing to take over her lifelong home. “I started small, with wallpapering, painting bedrooms, roofing, and basic upkeep.”
With his mother-in-law’s blessing, he renovated the kitchen, resulting in a gorgeous, updated, efficient space with granite countertops and a stone tile floor. “Overall, though, I tried not to make too many changes while my mother-in-law was alive,” he said.
When June Miller died in 2011, the family of four had shared the home for 20 years. “Mac, my mom, Jesse, and me,” Susan McMillan said. “It worked out really well.”
Staying in one place was a novelty for Francis “Mac” McMillan. He was born in Montpelier, Vermont, in 1945 but never lived in any one place for long. “My father was a career serviceman,” he said. “We moved all the time, all over the world, never putting down roots. Arizona, California, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Libya. All nine of us kids were born in different places. No two in the same place.”
At age 16, he declined to move to the next assigned destination with his family and instead went to live with an uncle in Montpelier. At 17, Mac wanted to join the National Guard as a path to the Army. His uncle signed the papers. “Between active duty and National Guard, I did 22 years in the Army.”
McMillan’s active duty during the Vietnam War spanned from 1967 to 1970. “I was in the 173rd airborne division, infantry. We were the first ones to get there, going on patrols for four or five days at a time, returning to base for re-supply, and going back out on the front lines.”
A squad leader, he was awarded a Bronze Star in addition to a Purple Heart. “I had six men under me. We were in the central highlands. I won’t go into it, but we saw some tough stuff.”
His wife commented, “I could never do what he did, sleeping on the ground out in the jungle. War, insects, snipers …” She shuddered. “It’s horrible, what they all went through.”
The veteran with a gentle demeanor said, “What got me through it was comradeship. We depended on each other, looked out for each other.” McMillan was wounded while rescuing a fellow soldier during a mortar attack. “I didn’t even know I was wounded until a medic told me there was blood on the back of my head.” He was wounded another time, as well.
“He still has shrapnel in his body,” said Susan McMillan.
Sitting in the couples’ beautiful kitchen — which, like the rest of the house, contains lovely antiques and is decorated in shades of black and white in keeping with Susan McMillan’s preference — it’s hard to reconcile the quiet, industrious man with the soldier who witnessed hell on earth. The room seems deeply peaceful, with a new paint job and recently hand-built china cabinet — two of McMillan’s COVID-lockdown projects.
“Working in and around the house helps me keep nightmares at bay,” McMillan said. “As long as I have a project, I do OK.”
Comradeship, the blessing that got him through the war, also helps him process war’s aftereffects. “Folks at the VA (Veterans’ Administration) have been great. Their programs really helped me. Comradeship. That gets me through.”
Having survived a horrific and controversial war, McMillan returned to Montpelier upon leaving active duty. After working for the postal service for three years, he realized he did not want to spend his days indoors. He apprenticed with a plumber, and later worked for a tap and die company, “pretty mindless line work. I was a thread grunt, making sure the taps got threaded.”
Working in construction and carpentry, however, he found something that engaged his keen mind and skillful hands: “My boss said I picked things up so fast. I always learned by watching, by observing. Life is on-the-job training for me.”
McMillan decided to relocate to Greenfield after his mother moved to town. He got a job with Mowry and Schmidt, a contracting company. “I worked with them for about 10 years,” he said.
“To be honest, it wasn’t always easy. I had flashbacks. I could get triggered by helicopters, loud noises, certain colors, fireworks. I had some tough times. But I got the help I needed and stayed busy. For me, that’s the key. Stay busy and think up new projects.”
Neighbors frequently stroll by the McMillans’ home, interested to see what Mac and Susan are up to. The stone walkway in particular draws admiring comments and glances.
“I’d never done a stone walkway before, but liked the look of them in front of houses I’d see when I was out on jobs or just driving around. I thought to myself, Why the hell can’t I do that? I knew I could do it if I just took my time.”
He consulted no books and watched no YouTube videos. McMillan used his intuition, asked questions at Goshen Stone Company, and did what he always does: listen, watch, think it through, then do it.
“I hauled all this stone home bit by bit in the van,” he said, standing on his finished project. “I started at the beginning and kept going until the end. I had to re-do parts of it, but it got done. I like the natural look of stone as opposed to poured cement.”
Already moving on to the next plan, McMillan said, “I want to do more landscaping out front here.” Glancing at the ponds he built, he said, “I might put some fish in. Maybe a bench, so the kids can sit and watch the fish.” Forest Avenue is home to many young children, and the McMillans’ beautiful yard attracts them as well as people of all ages.
McMillan says there’s no magic formula to the beauty he and Susan create in and around their home and encourages others to give it a try. “It’s mostly common sense,” he said, “and it’s therapeutic. I move my body instead of living in my head. That way, my unpleasant past doesn’t rule me.”
Like her husband, Susan McMillan creates objects of beauty sparked by her own inspiration, rather than books, magazines, or videos. “Things just come to me,” she said. She knits and crochets, and appoints their home with a skillful eye leading to vignettes worthy of a movie set, except that the place is populated by real people leading real lives.
“Mac and I work well together,” said Susan McMillan. “We always have.”
The couple has new joy: granddaughter Maddie McMillan was born in November to daughter-in-law Jessica and son Jesse. Weekly visits light up their lives with incandescent delight. “She’s the cutest thing you’ve ever seen,” exclaimed both grandparents. Photos hint that this may not just be familial hyperbole.
Is it possible that Maddie was lightly touched by a magic wand that’s also been waved over this Forest Avenue property? One could be forgiven for wondering if the McMillans’ gorgeous place could possibly be the work of mere mortals, and those in their retirement years, to boot.
But maybe the sign that hangs over their kitchen sink tells the real story: “Be the change you wish to see.” The McMillans are proof that no matter what life throws at you, if you pick yourself up, find comrades and create beauty for others to enjoy, real-life magic is the result.
Eveline MacDougall welcomes feedback and ideas about other Home and Garden stories: eveline@amandlachorus.org.