SUNDERLAND — Laughter and smiles filled Nellie Matysiewicz’s living room on a recent afternoon as the Selectboard presented the 99-year-old with the Boston Post Cane, dubbing her the town’s oldest resident.
According to BostonPostCane.org, the tradition started in 1909 when the publisher of the Boston Post newspaper decided to send 700 Selectboards across New England a 7-foot-tall ebony cane tipped with gold for the oldest man in town, with instructions to pass the cane on when that person died. In 1930, the recognition was extended to women as well.
Although the Boston Post stopped printing papers in 1957, the tradition of passing on the cane continues in Sunderland and numerous other Franklin County communities.
“Lots of communities have just embraced it as an opportunity to celebrate our elders,” Town Administrator Becky Torres explained. To preserve the cane, the artifact stays at Town Hall after the oldest resident accepts the recognition.
“It’s not about us, it’s not about the town — it’s the family in particular,” Selectboard Chair Nathaniel Waring said. He added that most recipients are longtime residents of Sunderland. “They’re such a part of the community. It’s an opportunity for the town to recognize that, but it’s really for the family to be able to brag a little bit.”
Speaking of his Selectboard responsibilities, Waring added, “So much of what we do is procedural. There are so few opportunities where we get to just go and see a lot of smiles.”
Matysiewicz, whose parents came to America from Poland, grew up in Hadley. Son Edwin “Ed” Matysiewicz said that, according to family lore, after being drafted to the Polish Armed Forces, Nellie’s father fled, booking a reservation on the Titanic in April of 1912. Luckily, his grandfather’s plans changed and he missed the tragedy, instead taking a boat from Hamburg, Germany to Boston.
According to Ed, his mother attended Northampton Commercial College before it closed, making her the first in her family of farmers to earn a college degree. When Nellie was a senior, Borawski Insurance recruited her. She worked for the Northampton company for several years. She married, moved with her kids to Sunderland and built the family home on the farm with her late husband in 1953. There, they grew sweet corn, cabbage, potatoes and tobacco. Ed said he remembers his parents nailing the walls in while he wheeled around outside on a miniature tractor.
Although the family now rents out the farmland, Ed said his mother mowed the grass until four or five years ago on a John Deere tractor.
“We’re farmers, it’s in our blood,” daughter Susan Matysiewicz said. Raised on a farm, she said the work ethic is heredity, with a “work until the job is done” mentality.
After Barowski Insurance, Ed said his mother started working at the University of Massachusetts Amherst preparing food before she became the head secretary of the engineering school under Associate Dean Joseph Marcus.
“Mom climbed the ladder,” Ed explained.
Ed, Susan and their sister, Deborah Maroni, described their mother as intelligent. Maroni said their mother spent many days as a child curled up in a corner of the library.
In the same home where she watched her children grow up, Nellie read the Boston Post Cane certificate aloud to the Selectboard and her family.
“This is a wonderful day,” Nellie said to her audience. In addition to being surrounded by family, she added, “I have this handsome man here,” pointing to Selectboard member Daniel Murphy as the attendees chuckled.
With the gold cane in her grip, Nellie said, “I feel very young.”