LIVERMORE FALLS — Hyla Friedman, 96, week received a plaque this week in commemoration of being the Boston Post Cane recipient as the town’s eldest resident.
“I really appreciate this. I didn’t think I was old enough,” she said at a ceremony attended by several family members and friends before the selectmen meeting Tuesday.
“It’s because of people like you that makes the town a special place,” board Chairwoman Louise Chabot said. “I met her many years ago and remember how nice she is.”
Friedman has been active in the community since she and her husband, Albert, now deceased, arrived in Livermore Falls in 1970. She just stopped driving a couple of weeks ago.
“I feel very much at home here,” she said.
Along with a plaque, Friedman also received a bouquet of St. Patrick’s Day-themed flowers. Her name will likely be etched on a plaque in the Town Office that will list all local Boston Post Cane recipients.
The last resident to receive the award was Louise Moulton in 2009.
Friedman was instrumental in the development of the veterans memorial near the Jay-Livermore Falls town line and many other community projects, including heading up the town’s U.S. Bicentennial Committee.
“I think I have lived in the best of times in this country,” Friedman said. “That monument was the icing on the cake.”
She said she believes flags should be flown all over town much more often than they are now. Her husband was a Coast Guard veteran.
“I’d like to see a flag flown everywhere and stress the importance of it,” she said.
Friedman is originally from Pennsylvania. She and her husband had two sons, one of whom is deceased. She has five grandchildren and one great-great-grandson.
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