REGION — “She was free-spirited person. She was on the go, freelancing, moving through life and enjoying it,” Mark Harrington said of his late mother, Sylvia Harrington.

His words about his mother, who passed away earlier this month, sum up how she lived life – always staying busy and hardly ever passing up an opportunity to explore all the world has to offer.

Sylvia was born in Rumford on June 26, 1932 and attended local schools as a child. She graduated from Stephens High School in 1950. After taking some time off following high school, she started school at Hickock Secretarial School in Boston, graduating from there in 1963.

This would not be the end of her academic career, however, as she obtained a bachelor’s degree in education from  Salem State Teachers College 11 years later in 1974. After graduating teacher’s school, Harrington landed a job in Portland and lived in a guest house in Yarmouth during her time there.

About three years later, in the late 1970s, Harrington again returned to further pursue an academic career. She traveled to London, where she studied at Hyde Park College, earning an advanced degree in Montessori Education. Adding another impressive accomplishment to her resume was only part of what she did while in London, though. Harrington also made time to explore other parts of Europe, visiting Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany.

“She had the time of her life over there,” Mark said.

Despite being separated from Maine by an ocean, Sylvia still had ties to the western Maine region.

In 1973, she had bought a hunting cabin in Newry from Richard Gillis, a childhood friend of hers. With the cabin in need of work, she hired carpenter Peter Haines and his helper at the time, Brooks Morton, who together helped redo the kitchen part of the cabin.

The first few years of cabin living were not ideal for most, but Harrington stuck it out, and lived mostly in the kitchen section of the cabin aside from bedtime, when she would sleep in a sleigh bed from the 1890s. If it were winter time, she would sleep with five blankets, a full flannel night gown, a hat and nose warmer.

“Other than the kitchen part, which was fully insulated and had a wood stove and electric heat, the rest of the cabin was as cold as it was outside,” Mark said.

It wasn’t until the early 1990s that the cabin started transitioning into a full-time home. At this point, two new carpenters, John Bouley and Sean McDonough,  were working on the project along with Mark, who estimated that they used 11,000 linear feet of white pine in the cabin. Other improvements to the cabin included new wiring done by John and Eldon Greenleaf, a new chimney built by Neil Donovan, and a new artisan well, which had been done by Jug Merrill and his son Chris, a few years beforehand.

“It was now a dream cabin,” Mark said.

Her cabin was in the perfect location for someone who loved spending time outdoors. Sylvia did several hikes and camping trips in the western Maine area, but also branched out to other parts of the state to embark on adventures, which included a 10-day trip with Maine Guides John Wight Sr. and John Wight Jr. down the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. It was simply her lifestyle.

And if she was not adventuring in her home state, she was most likely doing it elsewhere. She made several trips out west, with many ending in Arizona where Mark lived for 19 years. Out there she and her son went on hikes in the desert and visited the Grand Canyon, the Indian Cliffs and White Sands National Monument.

While many memories with her son surely held a special place in her heart, perhaps her most memorable trip, according to Mark, was a trip to California she made in the mid 70s with a friend she met while working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The friend was involved in the motion picture industry and had a place outside Hollywood where both of them could stay, so she decided to tag along. While out there, the sister of Sylvia’s friend with whom she had traveled had tragedy strike. Her husband, who belonged to the Hells Angels, suddenly passed away.

A week later Sylvia found herself at the man’s funeral service and noticed a group of Hells Angels standing right outside the service. It was clear the men were there to pay their respects, but were a bit hesitant about getting to close to other people. Sylvia approached the group of men and encouraged them to come in, eventually walking a few of the Hells Angels in with her hands.

“She actually physically invited them in and walked them in with her hands. I’ll never forget that story,” Mark said.

Another story Mark recalled is the thanksgiving his mother decided to no longer be a vegan, a diet she had adopted 40 years prior while studying in England.

“Someone asked her if she wanted to try a meatball and she said yes,” Mark said. “She broke her mold in front of the whole family.”

Despite giving in rather easily for a piece of meat, Sylvia strictly adhered to the vegan diet for four decades, which was not a common diet back then and was challenging for some restaurants to accommodate.

In her later years, which saw her spending more time in Newry and later Bethel, Sylvia continued to stay active. She went on trips with friends, wrote a weekly column in the Bethel Citizen covering Newry and still worked at Gould Academy as a Proctor for the SAT Tests. She served as a Proctor after retiring from Gould in 1997, following 18 years there. She did this because Gould Teacher Marvin Ouwinga was adamant on keeping her around in some capacity.

In her eighties she still got out for walks and made frequent stops at the Bethel Foodliner which, according to Mark, consisted of 10 minutes of shopping and about half an hour of socializing.

Even in her last few years, with her adventuring days well behind her, she never failed at making people laugh.

“People at the nursing home told us that mom was a riot, she had us all in stitches,” Mark said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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