Mary Feyler deep-fries donuts in North Nobleboro in 2005. Feyler will celebrate her 100th birthday on Friday, Jan. 8. (Photo courtesy Hilary Petersen)
Mary Feyler will turn 100 years old on Friday, Jan. 8, and her family and North Nobleboro community want to recognize the occasion, despite the constraints of COVID-19.
Feyler’s daughters, Orianna Mank and Shirley Hall, are unable to spend their mother’s 100th birthday with her. Hall contacted Mitchell Wellman, treasurer of the North Nobleboro Community Association, to find a way to mark the moment. “She wants to live to see her 100th birthday,” Mank said. “It’s all she talks about.”
Feyler has been a fixture in North Nobleboro as long as anyone can remember. From the church suppers that were once so common in small towns like Nobleboro, to her membership in the North Nobleboro Community Association and the North Nobleboro Baptist Church, to practically every North Nobleboro Day, Mary has been involved.
She has quilted, sewed, knitted, and baked for anyone who needed it. She has manned pie tables and fudge tables during community celebrations. Mank said that among her sewing group, she was “always the first up at 8 getting coffee and tables ready all by herself, even at the age of 90.” She took care of her ailing mother and her husband with Parkinson’s. She made sure her children and grandchildren were fed. She survived cancer.
“She’s a tough old girl — we all know that,” Mank said.
Hilary Petersen, secretary of the North Nobleboro Community Association, said the group of “doers” in Nobleboro is older than in most communities. They have a central role in holding all the recipes and knowing the routines. She calls them the “keepers of the knowledge.”
And Mary Feyler is one of them.
The community of North Nobleboro asks anyone who wants to recognize Mary’s 100th birthday to send a card to Mary Feyler, 161 Upper East Pond Road, Nobleboro, ME 04555; or call her with birthday wishes at 563-3626.
