Doris Clough of Bennington, at 93 years old, was presented with the town’s Boston Post Cane, honoring the town’s oldest resident, on Wednesday, August 12.
“I never could have imagined this would happen to me. I have seen other people get the cane, but I never imagined it would be me. It’s like a dream,” Clough said. “This is the happiest day of my life.”
Clough’s family, including children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, gathered at the Bennington home where she has lived for 65 years to honor her for receiving the cane.
Clough’s granddaughter, Melissa Searles, who is assistant director of Bennington’s GEP Dodge Library, presented her grandmother with the cane.
Searles also read the history of the Boston Post Cane tradition, which started in 1909.
Bennington Town Administrator Deb Davidson said the tradition had “kind of gone by the wayside” for a few years after the last resident given the cane passed away.
“It’s really important to keep it up, so we went through and figured out who our oldest resident is,” Davidson said. “The Select Board was really happy to help.”
Searles said her grandparents moved to the house on Francestown Road, which was built in 1824, as soon as they were married. The Cloughs raised their three children, Donna, Marsha, and Donald Jr., who passed away in 2015, in the house. Donald Sr. passed away in 2010.
Searles said Clough has six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, with the second “due any day.’
“I’m about to be a grandma again,” Doris Clough said.
Clough, who was born Doris Emery at Peterborough Hospital in 1933, grew up in West Peterborough. Both her parents grew up in South Peterborough.
Searles says both her grandparents worked full-time as a laborers their whole lives, Doris, at worked at Ball Bearings and Honeywell; and Donald Sr., at D.D. Bean and W.W. Cross.
Clough said she is the last of four siblings.
“My sisters both lived to be 85, my brother lived to 93, and now I am the last one,” Clough said. “I never thought I would live to see this day. I didn’t think I would make it too much past 80.”
Clough said she is blessed with “the most wonderful family.”
“They are so good to me, all of them. They take such good care of me,” she said. “I am just so happy.”
