A recent letter in the Gazette noted that Ward 3 City Councilor Quaverly Rothenberg’s empathy for Northampton’s unhoused population is “a calling, not a retirement job.”
As it happens, her opponent in the Nov. 4 race is Laurie Loisel, who is about to retire.
As someone who has known her for more than 30 years, I would like to offer my take on how Laurie would handle “a retirement job” as the Ward 3 city councilor.
Laurie will bring her whole self to the task at hand, just as she always has.
She’ll bring energy, compassion, enthusiasm and respect for others to every meeting. She will listen to everyone, and talk to anyone. She’ll face issues with a high regard for facts, a sense of purpose, a moral compass and, when appropriate, a sense of humor. Her personal warmth will help others feel at ease.
Laurie’s life has been about caring for people on the margins.
She grew up on a small farm in Maine in a family that struggled financially and with her mother’s chronic, severe mental illness. As a reporter at the Gazette, where I worked alongside her, she wrote decades ago about the city’s homeless population, long before the subject was widely covered. She chronicled the stories of those with mental illness who, like her own mother, sometimes wound up on the streets. At the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, she helped lead the effort to provide refuge and sanctuary. She’s been a longtime volunteer at the MANNA soup kitchen.
If that’s not a calling, I’m not sure what is.
I respectfully urge Ward 3 voters to consider putting Laurie to work for them. She’ll give the job everything she has, that I know.
Suzanne Wilson
Florence