The new story of old age in rural America: Neighbors and community lend a hand
Beverly Wight Smith has seen a lifetime of Maine mud seasons in this former farming town. From growing up on a farm during the Great Depression, to seeing neighbors clop through the mud on horseback during World War II when gasoline was scarce, to watching the trees finally turn green from her porch, this former government worker is happy to have stayed in Mount Vernon.
The farms are few now, the cows and horses that used to fill the fields largely gone. But Ms. Smith says she wouldn’t live anywhere else.
“Everyone is so friendly and helpful,” she says. “People know more neighbors here than they do in the city.”
The story of old age in rural areas is often portrayed as a sad
