If you live in Granby and read The Granby Drummer, then you surely recognize the name Bernadette Gentry. She’s the voice behind the thoughtful, sometimes whimsical but always pleasing poems published each month for her community to enjoy.
Gentry is quiet and deeply thoughtful. Born in Greenwich to a blue-collar family, she graduated from Greenwich High School and studied two years at the University of Connecticut’s Stamford branch before transferring to New York University. “I was studying early childhood education, but I didn’t graduate because I got married when I was 21,” Gentry says.
She and her husband Robert, a pharmacist, moved to Granby where Robert was briefly employed at Granby Pharmacy before opening his own business in Hartford. “I lost my husband when he was 38,” Gentry said. “He was killed in a robbery. This is when I started writing a little journal, after Robert died. I could not keep all the emotions inside me.”
A stay-at-home mother of two young children, Robert and Joanne, Gentry struggled with single parenthood, but her education gave her the tools to care for her family and maintain their home. “For a time, when my children were older, I was a pretend grandma every Thursday at Valley Pre-School,” she recalls. “They called me ‘Grandma Gentry.’ And I did a lot of babysitting in my home because I thought that being home for my children was important after my husband died.”
Eighteen months after Robert’s passing, Gentry’s journal came to an end. “My journal opened a door for me, and I started writing poetry when I felt a need to express what I feel,” she said. “I thought that others might have the same feelings but maybe can’t verbalize them, so I eventually decided to share my inner self with my community and submitted a poem to the Drummer. I was surprised and honored that they published it, and I guess I just kept doing it.”
The inspiration to write comes from Gentry’s experiences and from her social interactions. “I’m a good listener,” she said. “I write down little thoughts that I have, things that I’d never be comfortable expressing verbally. I love walking along Fern Hollow Drive where I live and thinking about the changes that I’ve seen since coming to Granby. I’m a very quiet person. I hope I am connecting with others to verbalize what they feel but can’t express.”
Gentry spends much of her time with wildlife that visits her home. “My animals come every morning for breakfast,” she says, eyes twinkling. “I give them seeds and small pieces of peanut butter toast. I make their toast before I make my own. I wrote that if they had hands, they’d come inside and help me.”
Several months ago, Gentry was admitted to the hospital with spinal problems. “I think my style has changed since being hospitalized,” she says. “I had to struggle to write because I was battling so much.” She wrote June Thoughts, submitted by the Drummer’s mid-May deadline, from her hospital bed. “My poems have become shorter, with more thought to word choice to get my feelings down.”
A devotee of historical fiction and Amish romances, Gentry is deeply religious and watches daily Mass on the Eternal Word Television Network. An avid gardener, she is now blessed by help from her family to maintain her beautiful, mature gardens. “My son Robert waters my gardens and mows my lawn,” she says. “My daughter-in-law Shirley cares for my plants. And my daughter Joanne and her husband Stanley visit me often and help me in so many ways.”
Gentry said she’s looking forward to finishing physical therapy at MeadowBrook and going home. “I can’t wait to reconnect with my former life after so many months,” she said. “I want to feed my animals and see how my gardens are doing and sleep in my own bed. It’s been a long road for me, but I never stopped writing my poems.”
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