Community Corner

Bethany Warming Shelter Offers Comfort to the Powerless Masses

The Bethany Community School is the place to be if you are looking for water, a prepackaged meal or even a little sympathy.

Tuesday evening around dinnertime, several men swept into the Bethany Community School which is now doing double duty as the “warming shelter.” They carried six large pizza boxes and bottles of soda and were greeted with “oohs” and “aahs” from those within. One shelter guest gasped, “Who’s the genius who thought of this?”

“Rod,” one answered, nodding at Fire Marshal Rod White as he lifted the lid of the first box.

The shelter had been doing a brisk business all evening, with residents stopping in for MREs, bottled water, showers and information. That evening, the desk was manned by Bethany Selectman Don Shea, who smiled, asked each resident to sign in with their name and address, and pointed them towards whatever they needed, including fresh pizza.

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Lillian Serafino, a Bethany resident for 44 years, helped herself to a slice. Serafino, a widow who lives alone with her cat, had arrived at the shelter the previoius evening after spending two nights with her neighbors, the Joress family. She is one of many who have no source of heat in their home following the bizarre October nor’easter that brought in January-like amounts of snow and took down trees all over town.

“My neighbors have a generator,” Serafino said, “but it’s very limited. All it can handle is the refrigerator and a little heating system that we huddled around in the evening, and they shut that off at bedtime and it got very cold. I am very appreciative of their kindness.”

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Her daughter, who lives in Glastonbury and is also without power, has a generator that heats the house and has asked her to come up and stay with her. Serafino, however, is not sure how her cat will handle even a temporary relocation. For now, she will continue to stay at the warming shelter at night and take care of her cat in her chilly home during the day.

“They’re wonderful people here,” she said of the shelter. “Very considerate, tactful, pleasant and informative.”

She helped herself to a second slice of pizza.

The shelter’s sitting room has been set up with snacks, hot beverages, newspapers, magazines, playing cards and games, but the biggest attraction seems to be the working television.

A Worst Case Scenario

Resident Brenda Heffernan was also on her second night in the shelter and was quietly watching the evening news.

Was it cold the first few nights in her home?

“Terrible,” she replied with a shudder, and her story, it turns out, was quite dramatic.

Heffernan lives at home with her elderly mother, who has advanced dementia. Normally aids assist her with her mother, but several of them had booked out for the weekend before the nor’easter arrived along with widespread power outages. Heffernan, who has physical problems of her own, including rhumatoid arthritis, was struggling to cope. Although she has fireplaces in her home, none of them are in working order.

“A neighbor, who was worried about my mother, had come over on Sunday and brought us turkey sandwiches from the corner diner,” Heffernan said. “She later called the fire department who came to check on us and they said, ‘Why don’t we take your mother to the hospital and you could stay there with her or in the shelter?’ But I said, no, we would be all right.”

But when Heffernan lost all phone service the next morning, she realized they were in more trouble than she had thought.

One of the aids finally arrived, despite being sick herself, and helped clean up Heffernan’s mother as best as she could despite the frigid temps in the house.

“My mother was freezing,” Heffernan said, “and the aid said, that was it, she had to go stay at the hospital.”

But how to get her there? There was no phone service and Heffernan’s car was trapped in the garage with no way to lift the electric door opener.

“My car has OnStar,” she said, “and that worked.”

Another friend had been trying to get to Heffernan’s house to help her, but with so many of the roads blocked by fallen trees it took hours. When he finally arrived, he told her he had visited the warming shelter, explained what they had for accommodations and suggested she should go there to stay. Heffernan didn’t want to leave her dogs, so they drove over to Best Friends kennel to see if they could help. While Best Friends also had no power, they said they could keep the dogs at a friend’s warm house that night and bring them to another of their franchises in Norwalk the next morning where they had electricity.

“I’m here until the heat comes back on,” Heffernan said. “The people here are so nice. They just can’t do enough for you. I have to say, Bethany has been very good to us, especially as my parents grew older and started to get sick.”

A Few Comforts of Home

At the front desk, more residents arrived to see what help was available to them. Judy and Greg Antignani walked in after driving to town hall to see if there was any way to get water; with no cell service or Internet, they had no other way to get information. They drove past town hall and stopped at the school when they saw lights and people.

When Don Shea told them they could take showers and help themselves to a slice of pizza, Greg broke into a smile.

“This is the happiest I’ve been all day,” he said.

Several minutes later the couple returned to the front desk with pizza and were smiling even more broadly.

“We can come back and watch Dancing with the Stars at eight o’clock!” Judy said.

The Bethany warming shelter will remain open in the school as long as it's needed. There are some cots available, but residents are urged to bring their own bedding as well as toiletries and any prescription medicines. Charging stations are available to plug in electronic devices as well as hot coffee, kind words for those struggling to cope with difficult conditions and up-to-date information, possibly the most difficult thing to find with a community so cut off from the rest of the world.


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