The 83-Year-Old Money Tree
Aside from being a nurse on the island for the past 53 years, the 5-foot-2 mother of seven is the sole administrator of the Mary D. Fund, a charity meant to help the 1,000 or so residents who call Block Island their year-round home.
Donnelly has only two stipulations: One, that applicants be year-round residents, and, two, that they let her pay the bills herself so that they don’t take the money and blow it all at the Poor People’s Pub (until recently the Albion), a local dive bar.
“I always just say, ‘I am only able to pay this much this month and, p.s., I think you need a class in money management,” she said. “People write me back and say that I’m the rudest person they’ve ever met, but I have to say it.”
I loved this article in the New York Times Magazine about a woman on Block Island who helps her neighbors pay their bills. I wonder if I ever ran into her — I grew up going there every summer and went to the tiny Medical Center quite a few times with my accident-prone brother.
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