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Judy and Jane Allen used to go to the Methodist Church “while the service was going on we used to read the wedding service to each other. We weren’t doing it because we wanted to get married. We were romantic and the words were pretty. That’s what put a little spark of spirituality in me.” That spark has warmed others as Judy went into nursing after graduating from the University of Connecticut. She took out sixteen years for her family and returned to nursing in 1980, serving in the life and death environment of Intensive Care Units for many years, most of them in New Hampshire where she still lives and works.
Judy’s family moved to Sea Cliff when her father finished service in the US Navy after WWII and immediately fell into the rhythms and culture of village life—play, school, church, the beach and skating on Scudders’ Pond. “Walking to school from home. I got lost my first day and went right instead of left. We didn’t have to worry about predators at that point.” Miss Laura Smith in 5th grade infected her with the urge to travel with stories of trips and places and what she had seen. In 6th grade she was in that half of the class that had the sometimes formidable, sometimes zany ex-Marine Robert Allen who could mimic Victor Borge’s vocal punctuation routine or suddenly announce, “Spit ball fight time.” Lunch was often bologna on white bread topped with catsup. In 7th grade “Richie Loftus brought Jane and I together when he ripped up his math paper and stuffed it in one of our hoods and we were so mad we went home and pieced it together.”
In high school she worked in Dobkins Pharmacy as one of the trio—Betty, Jane and Judy—who almost always greeted restless or lonely boys with a warm smile and willing ear. They were more therapeutic than most bartenders. Judy, however, bears a permanent Dobkins scar, the result of climbing on the counter to change the clock and having a pot of coffee water overturn on her foot.
When she left Sea Cliff for the University of Connecticut, “I was a little scared because I’d never gone away and was going to have a roommate. My father said you’re not to get pregnant.” She graduated with a nursing degree and also married in 1961, divorced in ’79 and remarried Dr. Fred Brown who died in 1995.
While continuing her nursing career , she has also found time to live in Canada for a while and to travel to Paris, Venice, Galapagos, and make fifteen trips to Alaska.
Judy is now working in a nursing home with rehabilitation, but says, “I don’t want it to happen to me. I try to take good care of myself. I’m extremely healthy.” Over the years I’ve become very spiritual and come to believe the best way I can live my life is o be very present for people to be kind and thoughtful. Every day is a new day. I look forward to every single day. I woke up today and thought ‘great I’m going to pick blueberries.” She may not admit it, but she has probably achieved one of her most important goals, “Maybe be a blessing to somebody.”
