EASTHAMPTON — Huddled behind a banquet table in the Parish Hall of St. Philips Episcopal Church, about 36 people hushed, waiting for their guest of honor to arrive Saturday afternoon.
Moments passed, the lights flicked on, the door swung open and the guests yelled “SURPRISE!”
Elise Bernier-Feeley, the guest of honor, was shocked to find a group of her friends and family who had planned a surprise party to celebrate her 70th birthday and invited members of a youth group she ran nearly 40 years ago. The group gathered to eat pizza, take photos and remember the times they had in Bernier-Feeley’s youth group.
“It’s worth living 70 years to get someone to do this for you,” Bernier-Feeley told the group. “I love you all.”
Bernier-Feeley, now the local history and genealogy librarian at Forbes Library in Northampton, spent 12 years running a youth group in Easthampton starting in the 1970s.
The hall was decorated with balloons, streamers and even a well-worn frog puppet she would bring to life at youth group events years ago.
“It was a great ride; we did some really fun stuff,” Bernier-Feeley laughed. “When we did the year end trips, Henry A. Frog would give the toll money for me, and the kids would scrunch down in the back seat thinking, ‘Who is this woman?’”
Easthampton Police Captain Robert Alberti, 43, remembers the year-end trips to Bar Harbor, Maine, “like it was yesterday.”
“She was like a second mother to me. She is an amazing, amazing, amazing woman,” Alberti said. “I learned a lot about growing up; she and her husband were guiding lights for us as kids.”
Christine Kress, 69, of Westhampton, agreed Bernier-Feeley had an undying compassion for the kids in the youth group. Bernier-Feeley does not have children of her own, but treated the youth group like family.
“Our kids were her kids, she considered them all her kids,” Kress said.
Kress added that Bernier-Feeley has a funny side, sharing a memory from a church fundraiser. In the late 1970s, the women participated in a “Rock-athon” to raise money by sitting in rocking chairs all night long.
“I remember we had to stay here all night long, and we could hardly stay awake ourselves,” Kress said. “We used squirt guns to keep the kids awake!”
And Bernier-Feeley was full of laughter at her birthday party Saturday, slipping the frog puppet over her hand and making friends and family chuckle.
According to Bethany Wozniak, a former youth group member who helped organize the party, a slideshow of old photos was shown and Bernier-Feeley was invited to perform a cooking-themed skit, called “Mama Feelini,” that she used to perform during youth group events, using a rubber chicken as a prop.