Randolph
Delyea, known as Char to friends and family, died Oct. 16, 2018, at age 78 from complications related to lung cancer.
“They weren’t like family, they were family,” said Jacques Delyea, the older of Charlotte’s two sons. “They weren’t treated as guests. We all had the same rules. She had a very clear moral center and passed it on to all of us.”
About 15 such individuals took up temporary or permanent residence at the Delyea home after Charlotte and her husband, John Delyea, moved into the large, Italianate-style house in Randolph Village in 1986.
Even after her husband died more than eight years ago, Charlotte Delyea continued to nurture as her own anyone who stayed there.
That included Charles Lussier, who lived with the Delyeas for some 25 years before his 2010 death. A gentleman in his late 30s named Jonathan has lived there since childhood and continues to reside at the home with Jacques and Jacques’ younger brother, Guy Delyea.
There was a time when both sons, Lussier, Jonathan, Delyea’s mother, Katherine Schimek, and Charlotte and John Delyea were all living together in the house. With the possible exception of her husband, Char was the fulltime caretaker for all.
“It was very demanding, but she did everything,” Jacques Delyea said. “She was active all day. She had huge calves from going up and down the stairs so much with big loads of laundry.”
Dawn Kearon, program coordinator at the non-profit organization overseeing Jonathan’s case, said Delyea is one of the most professional and resourceful caretakers she has ever worked with.
“A lot of people like to think of themselves as selfless, but there are very few people I’ve ever met who is as selfless as she was,” Kearon said. “She never asked for anything unless it was something that was going to benefit those who lived with her. She truly wanted the best for them.”
No matter an individual’s background, she wanted to develop a unique relationship with them.
“When someone first goes there, (the caretaker) gets some paperwork with some of the person’s history,” Kearon said. “Char would glance at it, then put it away and never look at it again. She wanted to get to know them without judgments and was always looking to see the best in that person.”
Born Charlotte Schimek to a farming family in southern Minnesota, she lived during high school in the small city of Waseca, about 70 miles south of Minneapolis, where her parents ran a drive-in movie theater. Charlotte and her two sisters, Rosalie and Carol, attended Catholic schools, and Charlotte was a cheerleader known for her vigorous enthusiasm.
“People were drawn to her,” said her sister, now Carol May, who is five years younger. “She had a lot of friends and us younger kids all looked up to her. In her senior yearbook, she was described in three words: ‘spirited, sparkling and sympathetic.’ And she was all of those things.”
While team sports were not widely available to girls in the pre-Title IX era, she developed a love of ice skating, tennis and golf and was a Girl Scout, her sisters said.
“She was active as a girl could be in the 1950s,” May said. “Anything she could do, she went after it.”
A 1958 high school graduate, Delyea spent a year at the now-defunct College of St. Theresa in Winona, Minn., before leaving school and marrying her first husband, Bob Gigeay. The marriage was short-lived, and after the divorce she moved to Bloomington to work as a school secretary, during which time she met John Delyea, a U.S. Air Force veteran who worked for the Social Security Administration.
John Delyea’s work brought the couple to New England, and they were married in 1968 while living in Framingham, Mass. They moved eight times in eight years to support John Delyea’s career, including a stop in Auburn, Maine, where Jacques and Guy were born.
The family settled in 1976 in Montpelier, where hints of Delyea’s future as a caretaker emerged in the form of large neighborhood parties for kids.
“Instead of a sandbox, we had a big sandpile out back, and there would always be 5 or 6 kids over,” Jacques Delyea said. “She would always bring out Kool-Aid and snacks. If there was ever a fight among us kids, she would play the peacekeeper. She was very engaged.”
Delyea became the manager of the Montpelier Elks Club and, later, worked in sales at the Tavern Motor Inn, now Capital Plaza Hotel. John, part of a community acting troupe, and Charlotte were quite active socially, her sons said, attending outings to sing and dance.
At home, the Delyeas maintained a large music collection and always had something playing, and Charlotte’s love of song and dance remained strong over the years.
“The day she died, her sister was over and thought she might need a drink and asked her what she wanted,” Jacques Delyea recalled. “My mom answered, ‘To dance. I want to dance.’ ”
The Delyeas became first-time homeowners when they purchased the house in Randolph in 1986, welcoming in Lussier, an adult with Down Syndrome and other mental health issues, the following year. While Delyea was only four years older than Lussier, a mother-son dynamic soon emerged.
“He had grown up around men who swore a lot, and was pretty rough around the edges,” Jacques Delyea said. “My mom, I think was pretty much an enforcer and a pain in his (behind) at first, but over the course of about 10 years, he became a really sweet guy, to the point where he actually helped take care of my grandmother when she was here with us.”
Some of Delyea’s most cherished time to herself came while tending to her flower garden near the house’s back door facing Salisbury Street, a ritual she maintained even while undergoing cancer treatment.
“It was her way of connecting with the earth,” Jacques Delyea said. “A lot of neighbors got to know her that way. Since she died, I’ve had people say they loved talking to my mom when she was out working on the garden.”
Of the 15 or so people who stayed at her home over the years, Delyea maintained a relationship with almost all of them.
“Save for one, they all either come by regularly or stop by out the of blue,” Jacques Delyea said. “They will always be connected. They will always be family.”
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.