Lebanon
But those who knew Bleyler describe a sweet, outgoing woman with a broad range of talents. Through all of it, she never let her schizophrenia get in the way of experiencing the great variety of life’s offerings.
Bleyler was 53 when she died on Nov. 6, six days after suffering cardiac arrest outside of her Lebanon apartment on Spencer Street. Her funeral, held on Nov. 12 at Rollins Chapel in Hanover, brought together an eclectic group representing all of Bleyler’s favorite activities and the numerous lives she had touched along the way.
“She liked to be busy,” said Pete Bleyer, Tracy’s father, who over time had a busy itinerary helping his daughter cope with her disability. “Her schedule was amazing. … When the voices were bothering her, she always had something to do.”
Bleyler’s various jobs and activities provided a useful distraction. They were also an illustration of her broad, curious personality.
Born on May 8, 1964, in Newport News, Va., she was the oldest of three sisters. She picked up playing the piano and the viola during the family’s time in northern Chicago, when she was little. Bleyler first started figure skating at age 8, an athletic pursuit that carried her to two International Special Olympic Games — the first in 1985 in Park City, Utah, the other in 1989 in Reno, Nev. She came home with a figure skating gold medal each time.
Bleyler later represented New Hampshire as a bowler on Team USA’s Global Special Olympic team during the 2007 Games in Shanghai, China. She was a member of the Upper Valley Hawks Special Olympics Team, coached by Hanover High physical education teacher Missie Rodriguez, and stayed an active athlete throughout her life.
“I think whatever she did, she wanted it to do it well,” said Rodriguez, who has been coaching the Hawks since 1996. “Tracy tried really hard. I know that she was very strong, and that helped her in all the sports she did.
“She was a wonderful person, always had a smile on her face,” she added. “I can still see her smile right now, from ear to ear. She will be very missed.”
Bleyler graduated from McLean High School in McLean, Va., and took a job as a secretary for the U.S. Geological Survey in Washington, D.C. after graduation. She was there for five years, but it was during that time that Bleyler started exhibiting symptoms of her schizophrenia — an illness that commonly doesn’t manifest itself until people reach young adulthood. Bleyler was forced to retire on disability.
She moved to the Upper Valley in 2000, following her parents, who had moved to Lyme a few years earlier. Ruth —Bleyler’s mother — and Pete said the Upper Valley, with its small town surroundings and its community support infrastructure, was the best thing for their daughter.
“It’s an amazing community,” Ruth Bleyler said. “Race, ethnicity, Tracy was blind to it. She took everybody where they were. She’d walk around Lebanon, say hi to everyone. Talk to them.”
It didn’t take Bleyler, who landed an apartment on Spencer Street in downtown Lebanon, long to jump head first into various activities all over the region.
She began volunteering at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in 2001 on Monday and Friday mornings, and logged over 4,000 hours of service before her death, according to DHMC volunteer coordinator Marcy Sanborn. There, she collated admission packs for inpatient units and
“You could set your clock by Tracy,” Sanborn said in her remarks at Bleyler’s funeral. “She had the best giggle. She loved chocolate muffins. I will miss joking with her about eating a brownie disguised as a breakfast food and what would her mom think and making her laugh. … Tracy never forgot names, and she always saw you before you saw her.
“Mondays and Fridays just won’t be the same without her,” she added.
Bleyler was awarded the hospital’s Edith Amsden Award for Volunteer Excellence in 2009.
In 2007, when Bleyler traveled to Shanghai as part of Special Olympics, the athletes were asked to write a statement about their proudest moments, Sanborn recalled.
“Tracy said her high school diploma, winning the goal medal in 1985 and 1989 for figure skating, and earning her 1,000 hours of service pin from the volunteer office,” she said.
Bleyler was also heavily involved in the AVA Gallery’s afternoon Art Lab program sponsored by the Special Needs Support Center, an art class for people with mental health issues. Classmates said Bleyler’s seat was at the head of the upstairs classroom, near the door. Her art is unique in its brightness; all her work follow a similar pattern, featuring colorful horizontal lines.
“She wasn’t the only one with such focus, but she was very singularly focused on her artwork,” said Deborah Mashibini-Prior, a Lebanon resident who started teaching Art Lab classes a year ago. “Some people come in and they spend half the time, or less, really doing their artwork and much of their focus is on the social aspect of Art Lab. Tracy, she definitely enjoyed the social interactions but she was here to work on her artwork.”
Added classmate Maranda Hutchins: “She was a really great person.”
Bleyler recently wrote an excerpt for an exhibit at the gallery, which Mashibini-Prior has hanging up next to the Art Lab classroom door: “Art Lab is awesome,” Bleyler wrote. “It keeps my mind occupied. I hear voices. I take medication for that. Art helps me not worry about it.”
Beginning in 2001, she also spent time riding at High Horses Therapeutic Riding Program, a special needs program that, “engages the rider’s mind and body to promote increased self-esteem and confidence, as well as improve posture, balance, hand-eye coordination and muscle tone,” according to its website.
“(Bleyler) was always an upbeat person,” said Diana Huntley, one of the High Horses instructors who worked with her. “Always smiling and happy. She was glad to see everybody. A lot of the horses in our program have human names. One of them is Lou. Tracy called him ‘Mr. Louie.’
“I’ll miss her. Tracy lit up the place.”
For 16 years, Bleyler spent her Wednesdays tending the coffee bar at the Cumberland Farms in Wilder. She made connections with the staff at Three Tomatoes Trattoria in Lebanon, was a regular at Next Steps Peer Support Center and participated in Happenings events at the Special Needs Support Center. She also made lifelong connections with Advance Transit bus drivers, who wrote Bleyler’s parents a lengthy note after her death.
“She always rode my bus from City Hall to DHMC and back,” said Linda Van Cor, who’s been with Advance Transit for 12 years, though she is no longer a driver. “She was a wonderful lady. She was always happy, always called every driver by name. … She was just so cheerful about everything.”
To those who knew her, Bleyler’s cheerful nature seem to be her lasting legacy. They describe a person actively enjoying the life she lived, despite the challenges that nature had presented her with. But to some, including her parents, Bleyler’s most important impact is the way she illustrated that people with mental illnesses can still lead fulfilling lives.
“She changed my perspective (of people with mental illness),” said Dudley Smith, a Hanover resident and family friend who knew Bleyler for well over 20 years. “She was sharp. She was perceptive. She knew what was going on. Yes, it has changed my view of special needs people.”
Because of their eldest daughter, Ruth and Pete Bleyler, who now live in West Lebanon, have transformed themselves into strong advocates for mental health and the rights of the mentally disabled.
Ruth Bleyler said she knew little on the topic when her eldest daughter was first diagnosed, but immersed herself in classes and training to get herself knowledgeable. As a result, Ruth, a 1962 Cornell University graduate, served three terms in the New Hampshire House, served as a board member of the New Hampshire Developmental Disabilities Council from 2000-06 and the National Alliance on Mental Illness from 2000-04.
Pete Bleyler –— a 1961 Dartmouth College graduate — is a member of the Special Olympics New Hampshire board of directors and chairs West Central Behavioral Health, the Lebanon-based nonprofit mental health organization connected to the department of psychiatry at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.
The pair also served on the board of directors at the Special Needs Support Center; Ruth, from 2001-09, and Pete, from 2003-10.
“There’s a stigma around mental health,” Pete Bleyler said. “I know I’m much more comfortable with it now.
“They are people too.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.