Sirkka Holm and Polly Curran have shared so many wonderful memories together over their three-plus-decade friendship. They lived just two towns away from each other, with Holm in Francestown and Curran in Hancock, and now the two get to see each other every day as residents of Summerhill Assisted Living in Peterborough.
Get them talking about the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in America in 1920, and it’s clear the topic is something both hold near and dear to their hearts.
When the 19th Amendment was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920, Holm was less than a week old and on Saturday, she celebrated her 100th birthday in a year where women all over the country are honoring their predecessors’ fight to secure the right to cast a ballot in an election.
Curran was born in 1930, but even though she was born into a world where women had already secured the opportunity to vote, it was a mission that her parents made sure she knew the importance of.
Holm’s mother came to America from Finland in 1888 and as she grew up the fact that women couldn’t vote here was something that didn’t sit well with her, considering she lived in a country where women had that right.
It became a passion for Holm’s mother to see the 19th Amendment’s passage and she joined the cause even before she would have had the opportunity to vote.
Holm’s mother was 16 when she went to a women’s suffrage group and held a sign that read something along the lines of ‘my son has to go to war, but his mother cannot vote’.
And as Holm got older, her mother brought her along to various causes. Holm still remembers when she was her mother’s lookout when she would be distributing leaflets for elections in case the police came around. While it’s been more than 90 years since then – and a lot has changed – Holm still feels the passion for its passage
“I was born into a world where within a week women were given the right to vote,” Holm said. “So it’s very close to my heart.”
It was a topic of discussion that Holm saw the importance of.
“At that early age, I think I recognized,” Holm said. “It was a different world and it was hard to talk to people about it.”
Curran remembers discussions around the family dinner table “about government and politics because (my parents) wanted to start us thinking about our place in the country,” she said.
“My father wanted to be sure we realized our rights,” Curran said.
Curran was 22 years old when she voted for the first time – putting her support behind Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election. She was living in Washington, D.C. at the time and went to listen to Stevenson speak.
And she can still remember going to the polls that year.
“It was very impactful. My hand was shaking, I remember that,” Curran said. “But it was almost too fast.”
While it had been more than 20 years since the women’s suffrage movement, Holm was so proud when she was able to cast her first ballot in the 1944 presidential election that saw Franklin D. Roosevelt elected to his fourth and final term in office.
“Oh it was wonderful,” Holm said. “I was very thrilled.”
She was living in Paris as a member of the Women’s Army Corps, but the importance of doing her civic duty meant she made sure to vote absentee ballot.
Each time Holm casts her vote, she can picture her mother in her mind.
“I always cared and I think it’s due to my mother making me aware,” she said. “I know what it meant to her.”
Curran understands the struggles that went into passing the 19th Amendment and doesn’t take it for granted.
“I treasure my right to vote,” she said. “Women endured so much for me and I just want to protect it. All they were asking for was a voice in a democratic country.”
Curran said she has never missed an election, even though she spent time in three African countries, Australia and Iran when her husband was a member of the Foreign Services. She always made sure to cast her vote through absentee ballot.
Holm said it’s important to pass on her stories to those of the younger generations, so they know the struggles that others endured.
“They should be educated,” Holm said. “So they’re talking about their heritage and can have pride in being able to vote.”
But with all that’s going on in the world, Holm knows there’s more to be done – and not just for women.
“All I want is a better world and for more people to have rights because there are many that still don’t have equal rights,” she said. “We still have a long way to go.”
Curran thinks the women’s suffrage movement, even though it was passed 100 years ago, is something that should continue to be discussed.
“I urge the schools to teach it. It’s part of our history,” she said.
And she sees similarities between that fight and the one that is currently happening around the world around the issue of racism.
“That’s our biggest cause, just like in the 1800s and early 1900s when women’s right to vote was the cause and before that ending slavery,” Curran said.
There are many reasons why Holm and Curran are friends. But for Holm one thing sticks out more than others.
“We’re good friends because we both feel strongly about the rights of women – and really all people,” she said.
For Curran, her right to vote is a testament to those who came before her.
“I think proud is the only word,” she said. “I’m so proud of those women. They had to suffer so mightily.”
Holm understands just how important it is for each individual to have their voice heard and her way of doing that is by voting every time there’s an election. She recently voted in the Peterborough town election by absentee ballot and plans to do the same for the primary and general elections this fall.
Curran said she votes so she can do her part.
“You can’t do it any other way,” she said. She likes to educate herself on the candidates, reading stories about their policies and any books that may have been written about them because you have to believe them.
“It’s like doing homework before you pass the test and voting is like the test and you hope you’re choosing the right answer,” Curran said.
And with two more elections left this year, Curran plans to make sure her absentee ballot is counted.
“I don’t take it for granted,” she said. “I treasure it.”