Sandra “Sandy” Harden Greenman, 89, of Block Island, Rhode Island passed away peacefully on April 6, 2024, in the comfort of family and friends after a decade long fight with Alzheimer’s.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 4, 1935, to William Reid and Betty Juris Harden, Sandy was the elder of two daughters. The family moved to Dalton, Massachusetts in the Berkshires, in 1942 where her father worked at Crane & Company. Sandra earned her first $10 by designing a Christmas card for Crane & Co. as a young girl. Sandra loved small town living and was always proud that she grew up “before TV was invented.” She fondly remembered listening to the Lone Ranger and Tonto on the radio with her sister, Gail. Sandra loved school and excelled; it was no surprise when she graduated a year early from high school. Sandy met Peter Greenman during the first week of Middlebury College when Peter asked if he could walk her home from a newspaper club meeting. Graduating Cum Laude with Honors in English, Sandy could recite Chaucer in old English, Shakespeare, and still some Latin late into her battle with Alzheimer’s. Sandy was an avid reader, writer, and a life-long student, always eager to learn something new.
In 1956, one week after graduation, Peter and Sandra were married. Peter’s enlistment in the Army then took them to El Paso, Texas where their first child, Christopher, was born in 1957. Sandy would make frequent shopping trips across the border to Mexico [you could just walk across at that time]. After two years at Fort Bliss, Sandy and Peter packed the station wagon and were off to the seaside town of Cohasset, Massachusetts where they welcomed their second child Sarah, nicknamed Sally. Cohasset would be their beloved home for the next 36 years, with much skiing, sailing, cycling, and backpacking in between working and raising a family.
Sandy received her master’s degree in social work from Simmons College. Working as the admissions director for Don Orione Nursing Home in East Boston, she befriended the residents, most of whom were Italian immigrants who had helped build much of modern Boston, including Logan Airport. It was at Don Orione that Sandy dove into the language, art, and culture of Italy. “Andiamo” was her word of the decade!
Creativity was Sandy’s gift and sustenance. She was remarkably skilled and artistic in many mediums. Knitting started in college during classes [the professors allowed it]. In illustration, watercolor, photography, needlepoint, sewing, poetry, and writing, Sandy thrived, but it was stenciling, tole painting, and quilting where Sandy excelled. Sandy expertly stenciled dining room chairs, legacy rockers, assorted antique pieces, and floors in historic homes, including their home on Block Island. She drew and cut her own stencils and was a master with gold and silver leaf. All done free hand, tole painting, a decorative folk art of painting largely on antique household items, had a long history in Europe and became a practice in 18th century New England. Quilting was Sandy’s passion for decades, even into her late 80’s. All of Sandy’s quilting was proudly done by hand. If you were lucky enough to receive a handmade quilted Christmas ornament, pillow, let alone a quilt from Sandy, YOU ARE LUCKY!
A favorite chapter in Sandy’s life was retiring to their beloved Block Island. Peter and Sandy discovered the island during an annual cycling trip. In 1982, they purchased the Robert Chitty Mitchell House on Center Road, which was built prior to 1850. Dubbed “Pretty Farm,” and largely derelict, the home and its three outbuildings were all lovingly restored under Peter and Sandy’s care. One of Sandy’s favorite places was “the garden” at Pretty Farm which remained an important retreat when Alzheimer’s gripped her world as the only place, she felt free of the disease. It remains to this day a sanctuary for birds, butterflies, and all those who have the good fortune to sit in its peaceful shade.
Sandy loved and appreciated nature throughout her life, and she found much happiness enjoying the diverse ecosystems of Block Island. Any walk with her meant examining every feather, stick, plant, shell, tree, cloud, and of course, ROCKS! Sandy collected rocks for decades –many from around the world. Sandy made stone walkways in her gardens, had a collection of heart shaped rocks, a hexagon stone from the Giants Causeway in Ireland, even a rock from the famous Ryoanji Temple Rock Garden in Kyoto, Japan. One of Sandy’s last “best” days – at 86 years old when she still had the fitness to walk – was with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson as they collected fossils in Snowmass, Colorado in an area that was once an ancient ocean. Sandy helped find shell fossils, including a rare sand dollar! “One of the happiest days of my life,” she commented.
The Block Island activities were endless, but singing was one of the special joys of Peter and Sandy’s retirement years from the Ecumenical choir, performing in The Extravaganza with Everett and Verna Littlefield as “The Grandmas and the Grandpas” to leading singing in the small choir at their parish Masses. Sandy was thrilled to be a national-medal-winning member of the Coastline Show Chorus, Sweet Adeline’s, commuting from Block Island to Providence weekly to rehearse and traveling across the country to compete. Peter and Sandy hosted the Block Island Barbershop Festival for years. Sandy was Peter’s right-hand-woman for his many philanthropic efforts on Block Island, all the while enjoying her passions in the quilting group, serving as an active parishioner, walking miles of trails, and baking hundreds of batches of “Mom’s Killer Brownies,” not to mention the Block Island Poetry group, feeding the birds, hosting friends and family from around the world, and living through hurricanes! Sandy and her mother Betty endured a direct hit from the devastating Hurricane Bob alone in the house with trees crashing down around them and lived to brag about surviving Bob’s wrath.
Sandy endured Alzheimer’s valiantly with grace and humor. She was involved in clinical trials. Even as the disease took control, she continued to travel to see family in Ireland, Montana, Colorado, and Rhode Island. Sandy leaves an unfillable void in the heart of many, but especially her family.
Sandy is survived by her sister Gail Schade; son Chris and his wife Kate; daughter Sal and her husband Jay Homola; daughter Rebecca Beauchamp and her children Taylor Tocci and Michael Beauchamp; granddaughters Eliza Burlingame and her husband Andrew; Emma Culver and her husband Robert; and great grandchildren Ned and Edie Culver, and Jack and Reid Burlingame.
Special thanks to the staff and residents of St. Clare in Newport, RI, who were also Sandy’s loving family for nearly three years. Their care, friendship, and support will always be remembered.
A memorial service will be held on May 11, 2024, at St. Andrew Church, 23 Chapel St, Block Island at 11:00 am. In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to The Mary D. Fund, PO Box 323, Block Island, RI 02807. Mary D was one of Sandy’s heroes and dear friends.