Long-lasting friendships can be hard to foster, let alone sustain, in a modern world defined by constant movement and change. But, a pair of lifelong companions in Stockbridge couldn’t imagine life without each other.
Susan “Boothie” Booth and Kate Ryan have been best friends and roommates for 50 years, as Booth says. For half a century, the women have lived together on what is currently the campus of Riverbrook Residence on Ice Glen Road in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Riverbrook is a private residential home for women with developmental disabilities. Ryan’s memory of meeting Booth makes it seem a matter of fact that they were to become close companions.
“I was 17 and she came when she was 15,” Ryan said. “We met when we came here. We’ve been friends ever since.”
Joan Burkhard served as Riverbrook’s President from 1976 before retiring in 2012. Booth and Ryan’s time at Riverbrook outlasts Burkhard’s as the future best buds arrived within three days of each other at the then-Riverbrook School in September 1963.
“She [Booth] was very much a part of the fiber of the program at that time,” Burkhard said. “She was a key resident. So she and Kate really were my guides to what kinds of things we could do and how we could develop the Riverbrook experience in a way that would be satisfying to everyone involved.”
Deborah Francome took over for Burkhard as Executive Director and has been with Riverbrook for the past four years.
“Boothie and Kate are like sisters who’ve grown up with each other,” Francome said. “They bicker. They support each other. They’re fiercely loyal to one another. Nobody can get between Kate and Boothie. They are very different personalities. When you ask either one of the ‘Who’s your best friend?’ If it’s Boothie you ask, it’s Kate. If its Kate, it’s Boothie.”
The difference in personalities within the friendship is immediately striking. Burkhard was able to shine a light on Ryan’s personality as she recalls the first time she met Kate.
“My husband and I had just moved in and we had rather sparse furnishing in the large living room,” Burkhard explained. “I remember that when she came in, I was seated in a bean-bag chair on the floor. Her mom and dad brought her up from New York. They were very Irish and very delightful. They introduced Kate to me and Kate’s response was to turn her back to me, cross her arms and say ‘Hmm, I wonder what this one’s going to be like.’
Ryan remembers the moment as well.
“When Mrs. B came everything changed for the best,” Ryan said. “I didn’t know what to expect or who she was.”
Riverbrook was established as a private school for girls with disabilities in the 1950s, a time when care for the mentally disabled was much different than it is today.
“First of all the world was not welcoming,” Burkhard explained. “Communities were not eager to integrate people who had difficulties. So they were very marginalized. It wasn’t just at Riverbrook, this was true nationwide. Most people with developmental disabilities resided in huge state institutions that were generally out in the country. Often the buildings were attractive, but people were pretty warehoused in those buildings.”
Burkhard was working in special education in schools in Berkshire County when the opportunity to take over Riverbrook arose in the 1970s as new government regulations were being rolled out regarding care of people with mental disabilities.
“My predecessor was very careful to make sure that the community did not object to her running the program on Ice Glen Road which is a lovely, kind of upper class neighborhood,” Burkhard said. “So she carefully kept a very low profile. I think that the women were sensitive to that. They understood that it wasn’t so easy for them to be integrated into the church, the working and the recreational community. So we started to try to shift those boundaries and push out into the community.”
Booth and Ryan are not just part of the fabric of the Riverbrook community, but the Stockbridge community as well. Ryan recently retired from 22 years at the Red Lion Inn while Booth continues her work of 23 years at the Marian Helpers Center, often taking the one-mile trek on foot, literally uphill both ways. Booth also serves on Riverbrook’s Board of Directors.
“I love being on board of directors,” Booth said with a smile. “I meet new friends.”
Ryan retired from her position on the board, and you could say she was a little less enthused about being a part of it.
“Kind of boring,” Ryan said giving a grumbling chuckle. “I tried to get out of it every chance I got, but half of the time I had to go.”
But Ryan says she is enjoying her retirement and continues to help out staff and the other 19 residents with whatever is asked of her. Resident Jane Cole agrees.
“Well I like Kate because she is very nice to us,” Cole said. “She’s always helpfully and polite to us. And Boothie? I like her too.”
Francome says the two women and the friendship itself have come out unscathed from a series of changes most people couldn’t even imagine.
“Think of the rule changes and the philosophy changes,” Francome said. “Things are so outside of their ability to control and the grace and the strength that they have to deal with these changes.”
While Ryan may have grumbled at a nosy reporter interrupting her day, that’s not how she talks about the past 50 years with Booth.
“I enjoyed every minute of it,” said Ryan.
