Charlanne van Wormer. (Courtesy photo)

One morning at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, several family members and patients, including a young woman in pain and discomfort who was visibly nervous about her appointment, waited in agitated silence. Observing the young woman’s distress, an older patient, Charlanne Van Wormer, smiled kindly at the woman and softly asked if she had traveled a long distance that day for her appointment. The tension instantly melted from the young woman’s face, her shoulders relaxed, and the two proceeded to converse as though old friends. Such was the warmth and caring so characteristic of Charlanne.

Charlanne Van Wormer died Jan. 3, two-and-half years after her diagnosis of ovarian cancer. She was 71. She never liked using the phrases “battling cancer” and “fighting cancer” as she felt that she was not a combatant, and that cancer was not a war. The peace, acceptance, and grace that she exhibited during her illness were keenly noted and admired by everyone who knew her and were a natural extension of the grace and compassion with which she lived her life.

Charlanne’s boundless gift for caring was well known to her family, friends, and community. Her volunteer work, which spanned four decades in Harvard and surrounding communities, began shortly after she moved to Harvard in 1963 when she served on the board of the Village Nursery School. She next joined Harvard Help, an organization dedicated to assisting townspeople with transportation and medical needs, and the Harvard Elm Commission. She was very active at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Ayer, serving as a lay minister, junior warden, senior warden, and secretary, as well as on several boards and committees.

At St. Andrew’s in 1974, upon listening to a presentation by Kay Doherty about the racism and poverty in Mississippi and her efforts to institute an annual walk to raise funds for the poverty-stricken families there, Charlanne was moved to live out her faith by taking action. She participated in the next several Good Friday Walks for Hunger in the Hingham area, and in 1982, started a satellite Good Friday Walk in Harvard. Charlanne served for 17 years as its coordinator, director, fundraiser, worker, and walker, and became good friends with the many individuals who worked so hard to make it a success.

In 1982, Charlanne found her opportunity to work on poverty closer to home, by helping to implement the vision of three friends who felt called to start Loaves & Fishes, a local food pantry, so that their neighbors could afford both food and housing. She was a co-founder and worked, from 1982 to 2002, as coordinator, director, steward, and fundraiser for Loaves & Fishes. The organization, which continues to serve families and individuals in Ayer, Devens, Groton, Harvard, Littleton, and Shirley, has assisted more than 3,500 different families since its inception, provides services to approximately 400 households each month, and is supported by dedicated volunteers that work more than 20,000 hours a year. In addition to providing food, the pantry also provides clothing, emergency housing, and one-on-one counseling services to promote empowerment, independence, and self-reliance for its clients.

Ruthie Broughton, a long-time friend who worked actively with Charlanne on both the Good Friday Walk for Hunger and Loaves and Fishes said, “She was always outside herself. It was never about her, but it was about her listening, writing, reaching out, and always caring—a true and important gift to each friend and those who shared her life.”

Charlanne was a member of the Board of Directors of Harvard’s Council on Aging for six years. Upon her resignation in 2006, the board wrote that she was a “true champion for the needs of Harvard’s seniors and has donated hundreds of hours to help the COA get where it is today,” and thanked her for her “insightful and wise contributions” and her “forever positive ‘can do’ attitude.”

In her later years, Charlanne joined the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church, where she participated in several committees and activities, including a continuation of her earlier work in prison ministry. She also remained active in Harvard Help.

Charlanne Van Wormer (Courtesy photo)

Charlanne was born June 16, 1936, on her mother’s birthday, in Hudson, N.Y., to Ruth Boyd Bailey and Edwin Taylor Bailey, II. Her given name was derived from those of her two grandmothers, Charlotte and Annie. She read avidly, studied hard, played softball and field hockey, and served as president of the student council. Both of her siblings, Edwin Taylor Bailey, III, of Hudson, N.Y., and Karen Fonda, of Claverack, N.Y., recalled how popular and outgoing their sister was and how she, like her younger siblings, dearly loved their extended family, especially their young uncles, Gilbert and Wallis Boyd, of Wallingford, Conn. Mr. Bailey recalled how the “Hudson Hopefuls” “practically lived for those monthly trips to Wallingford” to play softball with Gil and Wally, the “Wallingford Wonders,” who invariably let themselves lose to their adoring nieces and nephew.

Charlanne turned down a New York State Regents scholarship, opting instead to study physical therapy at Bouvé College, which was part of Tufts University in Medford, the alma mater of her mother, grandmother, aunt, uncles, and great aunts. She met her future husband, Ken Van Wormer, a professor of chemical engineering, in one of the dining halls at Tufts, and married on June 22, 1957. The first two years of their life together were spent as faculty residents in Carmichael Hall, a men’s dormitory at Tufts, during which time she completed her degree and gave birth to their first child. In 1963, they moved from their home in Winchester to Oak Hill Road in Harvard, where she and her husband devoted themselves to raising four children amidst the rich backdrop of Harvard’s natural beauty and its fine townspeople, schools, athletic programs, scout troops, and countless other offerings, as well as their church community and extended family, for whom they hosted countless family reunions. Charlanne Van Wormer died peacefully in that same home where so many wonderful memories were created.

Charlanne led a life full of activity, friendship, and individual pursuits. In the mid-1960s, she and several other young mothers descended on the Harvard playing fields once a week to play field hockey, with baby carriages and playpens lining the entire sideline, and hockey balls whizzing by. The “Jockettes” also played basketball one night a week in the winter months. She square-danced for years with the Sixteen Footers in Littleton and was active in the Harvard Bible Study group, the Garden Club of Harvard, and the Harvard Woman’s Club.

Charlanne loved music. She sang alto and soprano for many years with Harvard Pro Musica and the St. Andrew’s choir. She encouraged the musicianship of her four children and husband, and worked behind the scenes of the Sounds of Concord, the barbershop chorus in which her husband sang. For 25 years, she and Ken participated in the annual Harvard Messiah Sing and, in 2007, she enjoyed its cable broadcast in her living room, as her strength had failed.

Charlanne also loved to write. Her stories in The Harvard Post describing many of Harvard’s townspeople were appreciated and admired, as were her vivid, hand-written letters. She relished writing silly poems now and then for various birthday parties, anniversaries, and other events, and wrote more serious pieces for a neighborhood writing group. In one 1988 issue of the Post, Charlanne wrote about her own thoughts and experiences with that year’s Good Friday Walk for Hunger:

“I think of my three friends and my uncle—Bob, Bob, Barbara, and Jean. They have cancer. Though the Walk is officially a statement of social justice and concern for the hungry and victims of racial discrimination, these four will be with me all day, too, in spirit; the aches and pains, the quiet times, the hilarity, the surprises of the day yet to come—all will be for them. An action prayer. I know others will be carrying similar concerns.”

Charlanne treasured reading in solitude, one of her greatest loves, and the time spent in quiet reflection as a companion in Byfield, at Adelynrood, the summer home of The Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross. She also learned the simple joy of meditation in her final years.

Through the raising of her family, the numerous activities to which she belonged, the organizations she was honored to serve, and her daily life, she made countless deep and abiding friendships. Her enthusiasm, vitality, generosity, ever-smiling presence and engaging laugh; gifts for leadership, listening, and equanimity; ability to laugh at herself; and her passion and commitment to her causes and to her family, as a wife, mother, and grandmother, will live on in the hearts of all who knew her.

Her last party, her 50th wedding anniversary celebration, was a memorable and joyous occasion shared with many family and friends at The International in Bolton this past June, at which she was also honored for her many contributions to Harvard and its surrounding communities.

Contributed by the family of Charlanne Van Wormer.