Father’s Day marks relaxation of some visitor policies at Taylor Community

LACONIA — Visitors were allowed in Taylor Community’s independent residences on Sunday for the first time in almost three months – and just in time for Father’s Day.

Jane Connelly, a science teacher at Laconia Middle School, visited her father, Larry Guild, and his wife, Sharon, and took them out to lunch at Brick Front Restaurant.

“It was very nice to be able to hug her again,” Guild said.

He’s been able to stay in touch with family over the phone and on Zoom, but there’s nothing like a personal visit.

“They have had the opportunity to stay safe in the Taylor Community, and still have some activities like gardening,” Connelly said. “But it was just good to see him get out and about.”

COVID-19 precautions

“We had our own masks,” Connelly said. “There were some nice young people in the gate house who took our temperature.”

In early April, the campus was locked down and residents were encouraged to stay home. On May 18, the campus was reopened for independent living residences to come and go without the requirement for a 14-day self quarantine. The campus has now reached a phase where visitors are allowed if their name is on a list at the gate.

The campus has remained free of coronavirus, a disease that has been deadly in some retirement communities.

“Frankly, it’s now kind of scary to go out in the real world,” Guild said. “I can’t get used to masks and going to stores, where there is a certain place you have to stand in line to check out and you have to go up the right aisle and down the other one.”

He praised the leadership of the Taylor Community for taking precautions that have prevented the virus from spreading on campus and for helping residents with all their needs during the pandemic.

Family memories

Father’s Day is a time for reminiscing, and at age 85, Guild has plenty to look back on.

He earned a degree in political science at Dartmouth College and considered a career in the Foreign Service before agreeing to help his family by joining their textile business. They operated the Guild Mill in downtown Laconia.

Guild married Virginia, or “Ginny,” a professional model, the 1963 Breck girl, and they had three daughters.

He has lived in several homes in the Gilford area, including 25 years in one on Governors Island.

Family outings

The couple and their girls enjoyed the Gilford Outing Club, which ran its own little ski slope in the winter, had parties at the beach in the summer and hiked in the fall.

“It was a great thing and anybody could belong for $25 for a family,” he said. “If they couldn’t afford it, the other families would get together and buy it for them.

“We had a rope tow and a little snow cat. Each weekend two couples operated the little ski area. The women cooked, one man ran the rope town and one man was the ski patrol.

“We had a wonderful time with the kids. I skied with the girls. They were much better than I was.”

His daughter, Jane, remembers those outings. She took her own three children to the club when they were small.

Virginia died of pancreatic cancer in 1995, and Guild eventually remarried.

“Sharon was living in Alton when I met her, but she grew up in Rochester,” he said. “She’s a true native.

“I’ve been very fortunate. My first wife was just a gorgeous lady and a wonderful mother to my kids and my second wife is the joy of my life at the moment. If I had ever had sons, I’d want them to be just like hers. Our families are very well meshed together, and life is good.”

Along the way, Guild found time to be a volunteer firefighter and a Gilford selectman.

He continued to work in the fabric business until his retirement two years ago.

Fabric for Kermit

“My claim to fame is I supplied the fabric for Kermit the Frog and I worked with Jim Henson, providing fabric for 40 years. When I retired, they made me my own puppet.”

He also supplied fabric for full-size theme park characters. His clients included the Disney Corporation and Universal Studios.

“I had wonderful clients, all friends of mine,” Guild said. “They didn’t want to see me retire, and I didn’t want to. I kept busy, but life started to get more complicated and I sold it to a customer and got out of it.”

The garden

He now stays busy with his rock garden, which teams with flowers and is complete with a miniature castle, cottage and gnomes.

“It’s made up of perennial shade plants. I have 30 different varieties of plants in the garden. And it flowers at different times. Spring flowers have just gone and the summer flowers are starting to bloom.”

He has trillium and Virginia blue bonnets, primroses, bleeding hearts, Dutchman’s breeches, daisies, phlox and a rocket plant, so named because it’s tall and sends flowers out in a rocket-type formation.

“I enjoy working out there. It’s my only salvation during this time.”

The MacGuffies

Linda MacGuffie is also an independent living resident of the Taylor Community.

It was her suggestion to move the phase three opening up one day, to allow visitors to the independent living residences on Father’s Day.

She also praised the community’s leadership for taking care of the residents during a difficult time.

“I have to say, I’m one of the few people who was perfectly content to hole up in a little cottage,” she said. “It’s not that nice out there. Going outside the community and having to wear a mask and try to lead a normal life, I’m finding that much less pleasurable.”

She continues to work part-time as a bookkeeper.

Staying safe

MacGuffie said there has been a real determination to keep the community safe.

“None of us wants to be the first person to bring COVID-19 to the campus,” she said.

She and her husband, Bob, had their daughter, Debbie Spurlock, of Meredith, over for Father’s Day.

“We ordered a meal from the bistro and it was super delicious,” Linda MacGuffie said. “It was lovely having my daughter here for the first time in I can't remember when.”

She remembered back to how she met her husband.

They went to school together but wouldn’t have become husband and wife if not for her father, an engineer who manufactured ham radios.

Her future husband was a ham. The two men struck up a friendship and soon she and Bob grew close.

“That’s what brought us together,” she said. “That was very nice, too. They were great friends. It’s nice to have that kind of relationship.”