The Neileys Watched Shelburne Bay in the Making

By Ginny Downs

Midwesterners Ginny and George Neiley discovered Shelburne Bay in its build-ing stages while visiting Sally Soule, a friend who lived in Burlington.  “We rented her apartment in 2000 and watched the building go up, Ginny says.  “We had looked around and decided we would move here.” They became residents in 2002, with the help of their son, Tim.

The Neileys’ decision to move when they did was the decline in George’s health. Following a boating trip with friends in Canada, her husband woke up early one morning and said, “I can’t move my right side.”  He had had a stroke and eventually they made the move to Shelburne.

“Growing up in the mid west was a lovely experience,” Ginny reminisces.   “I had a very happy love-supportive family.” She was born in Moline, Illinois. Her father was advertising manager of the large Deere and Company, and her husband to-be was in the same department. She was introduced to her future husband by her roommate at Connecticut College for Women in New London. A graduate of Dartmouth, George was a reserve officer in the Coast Guard, teaching seamanship and celestial navigation. They were married in 1943, the month after her college graduation. George became Assistant to the Secretary, then director of public relations, a position that involved much of Ginny’s time, with frequent entertaining and travelling.

The Neileys had three children, Cynthia who has two boys; Tim, who has two boys and a girl; and Nancy, with a boy and a girl.  “We were blessed with seven grandchildren,” Ginny says,  “but we were able to squeeze in lots of tennis, skiing and boating through the years.”

“We were an extremely civic community in the mid west and I became very involved with the Junior Symphony Board, Garden Club, City Horticulture, church and a group sponsoring women’s education,” Ginny explains.

“I’ve always been interested in art, but because of George’s business I didn’t have time,” she reflects.  “Just a little sketching here and there. My mother wanted me to take an oil painting course but I told her I wouldn’t take it unless she did too. It helped me – I did it for her, got my foot in the door, then coming out here I finally, at last, had some time to myself. So that’s when I really started.”

I asked how she gets her inspiration for her work.   “Well, I sit down and start doodling and then it often turns into something. I’m going outdoors this year to paint. Most of the ones I have done were right here in this room,” she said of her studio which was once meant to be a bedroom.  “Some of them I have looked at a picture or a photograph that inspires the art. I look at a piece of insulation and see faces in it. I can look at a plain rug and design, then step on it to see a second design. I do not have a scientific mind.”  She laughed and added, “I guess it’s a goofy mind.” The proceeds from the sale of her art cards go to the “Stern Center for Learning” in Williston. She described it as a wonderful place.  “I know two people, now grown boys, that it had helped tremendously. One boy stuttered terribly, another one had trouble reading.”

Ginny has a “Story Hour” at 10:30 Thursdays in her apartment. She started it for her friend, Betty Davis, who has macular degeneration. It is open to everybody, she says. She goes to the art class Fridays, Current Events and a book group. Yoga too is one of her favorite activities, along with Ellen’s exercise class on Saturdays.

She feels very fortunate to be here at Shelburne Bay with such caring staff and fellow residents and plans to stay for years more to “wear out, never to rust out.” Ginny will be 90 July 16th and plans a family reunion in her Michigan vacation home.  “The house will be bulging with fourteen family members and two grandchildren’s girlfriends,” she says.

Story written and edited by Resident Ginny Downs, a University of Vermont graduate, who had a long career of writing for company magazines, Vermont Life and newspapers in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

Look for Ginny’s next Biography in the August Newsletter.

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