Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
Issue link: https://wellesleywestonmagazine.epubxp.com/i/819093
S T E V E M A A S writer R E N D E R I N G S C O U R T E S Y O F T O L L E S - P A R S O N S S E N I O R C E N T E R a n d J O H N C AT L I N & A S S O C I AT E S A R C H I T E C T S when the Tolles-Parsons Senior Center opens in Wellesley early this fall, look for the woman with the biggest smile and the most battle scars. That will be Mary Bowers, who has devoted the last dozen years to seeing that the $825,000 seed planted by Mary Esther "Billie" Tolles would bloom into a beautiful home that the town's seniors could call their own. Bowers is among the key players who navigated a tortuous circuit of town committees to win approval for the $8 million center, at 500 Washington Street, across from the police station. Wellesley's director of senior services, Gayle Thieme, has been fighting alongside Bowers and likens her to the Energizer Bunny. Thieme has been waging a larger battle as well — against stereotypes about seniors. Consider the reaction she gets at social events, when she tells people about her job: "I say I run a council on aging. They say, 'Oh, you run a nursing home. How fun! You play bingo.'" How wrong. And the new senior center will prove just that. 105 W e l l e s l e y W e s t o n M a g a z i n e | s u m m e r 2 0 1 7