Ann Gillerlain says gardening is in her blood. Her grandfather did his own gardening until he was 89 years old, and though she's a bit shy of that age now, she still has his rhubarb planted in her backyard. As a child, she would pose for photographs with flowers in her hand.
"I'd always hold the flower, I'd never tear it apart like the other kids," she says.
Ann has lived in New Canaan since 1950, where she has used her skills in the garden to help make the town a more beautiful place. She has been a volunteer horticulture therapist at the Waveny Care Center for the last 35 years, helping patients make floral arrangements for holidays or to decorate the dining room.
"We get tired and we're standing for two or three hours, but it's so worthwhile," Ann says. "And when they enjoy it, it's good for you." She says the patients make beautiful arrangements and enjoy the process of putting them together.
Ann spent almost two years learning the techniques of horticulture therapy in a weekly class taught by a professor at the University of Connecticut. Every year, she says she plans to retire from her volunteer post, but every year, she continues.
"It has a very good ambiance about it," she says of the Waveny Care Center. "I think there's a lot of loving kindness there."
It seems like Ann is always learning something new, especially in the town where she has volunteered for so many years. She frequently attends classes at the Lapham Center, where she says she has caring teachers and classmates. She is a painter, a tennis player, a musical theater aficionado, a volunteer, a historian and of course, a florist.
"New Canaan has all these fascinating things to do if you want to," she says.
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