Walk 125 miles in the Blue Hills? No problem for Milton trailblazer Loraine Sumner, 86

MILTON – The trails in the Blue Hills are already busy at 9:30 a.m. on this summer Saturday and we are moving along at a steady clip. The sun filters through the trees, it is not too hot yet and we pass a variety of other hikers – some solo, mostly younger people, college students, parents with children.

One man, with his dog running behind him, goes by us three times in the first half hour. "I'm a cardiologist and I'm on call," he explains on his second pass. "I park near the hospital and go around in loops," so he can respond quickly if he is needed.

It's all part of the fun and the adventure. My hiking group is on the senior side, compared to the others we see. Our leader, Loraine Sumner, 86, sets a moderate pace. By 10 a.m., we are at the top of Buck Hill, our destination, and now we have to find our way down.

This is an informal exploratory hike and Sumner is looking for a particular trail she took a few years ago – one that doesn't go down the steep rocks but winds off to the side more gradually. After a false start, down and back up, she finds the path and we are on our way.

"Yes, I have a nice group of hikers!" Sumner says later. "I so enjoy them and I love hiking!"

A pioneer in girls and women's sports, she is on a mission to encourage more seniors to take up hiking.

"Whatever you can do, keep doing it," she says. "Just move, move, move, keep that blood pumping."

During the pandemic when everything shut down, Sumner took up the challenge of the Friends of the Blue Hills: walk all 125 miles of the trails in the Blue Hills Reservation. She completed it in 10 months, logging 20 to 30 miles a week through parts of Milton, Canton, Quincy, Braintree and Randolph.

"To be in the Blue Hills, breathing fresh air, is so peaceful and relaxing," she says. "I feel like I'm in another world."

It's not easy to keep up with Sumner. Call her at almost any time of day and she's either not home, on her way out the door to the senior center to run the card games, to the library to play mahjongg or to the Blue Hills to hike.

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In between, she is helping other seniors with their food shopping.

"God love a duck" is the opener on her answering machine message, her favorite phrase, as in "God love a duck, I once had a travel business and that was to teach me to sit still."

The lesson didn't take.

"She's our best volunteer, our point person when we need something done," Christine Stanton, director of the Milton Council on Aging, said. "Loraine is a force, very dedicated and she is always helping fellow residents."

Each month, Sumner leads four weekly walking groups and four weekly hiking groups for the senior center. Come winter, there will be snowshoeing.

She also teaches card games – mahjongg, whist and hand and foot – three days a week; each draws 20 to 30 people. She is the chair of the council on aging board of directors. She is very active in monthly lunches for the Milton High School Class of 1954 and volunteers at the town library teaching mahjongg.

"The more you do, the more your body gets used to," is her motto.

On Oct. 1, she will participate in the council's 5th annual Fit for Life Walk at the senior center. The event is the council's major fundraiser; the funds will help expand the transportation program and support more activities and programs.

The walk is being spearheaded by Maureen Conlon, who runs Milton Boot Camp.

Sharing her joy in moving outdoors

Born in 1936, Sumner grew up in Milton, lived in Abington for 25 years and returned home in 1993 to care for her mother, who had Alzheimer's disease, for 10 years. She took her out walking nearly every day. "She would complain if I didn't  – she could remember walking, even if she no longer knew who I was," she said.

She uses that experience now to help others. A former classmate and friend developed Alzheimer's and Sumner has been helping the woman's four adult children sort through all the issues.

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"You have to understand they are not the same person and you can't take anything personally," she said. "You need a sense of humor to get through it."

She was a physical education teacher for 17 years at private Catholic schools in the area, had a long career as a coach in multiple sports and officiated basketball and softball.

As she continues to be so active, she encourages others to share her joy in moving outdoors.

"In October we're going to climb the summit (of Great Blue Hill)  and come down the ski slope, which is an exciting thing to do," she says. "You don't think you're going to do it, you look down, but I've done it a few times and it's a piece of cake. And if the foliage is nice, it's great. It's a beautiful view."

Her example gives encouragement to newcomers like Barbara and Jeff Smith, who two years ago moved from Pennsylvania to Fuller Village, a Milton retirement community. "At first, we were intimidated by the idea of walking in the Blue Hills, but now that Loraine has made them familiar, we feel free to go out and explore," Jeff, 78, said.

Barbara, 75, who has knee issues and has had two hip replacements, finds renewed inspiration. "Loraine amazes me, she is so active, and I'm right there with her when I can be," she said. "I say, 'If she can do it at 86, I can do it,' but she is so way ahead of me."

And the Smiths in turn inspire other hikers like Betty Jean Regan, 76, who ran the Boston Marathon at age 43 and wants to keep up her walking.

"The people in this group are so interesting and when they tell you what they've been through, hip replacements, all sorts of things, you are amazed they are out here," she said.

Remembering Irene Burke, 101, of Marshfield

Generous hearted, hard-working, nimble-fingered and proudly stubborn Irene Burke almost made it to her 102nd birthday on Aug. 31. The former Marshfield resident of 35 years passed away Aug. 13 at Bay Path Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Duxbury, surrounded by her family. She had moved there at age 99.

Irene had five children, four living; 27 grandchildren, 31 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren, and kept up with birthday cards for all. She became well-known at the Marshfield Senior Center, where she brought the small dolls she had knit for children who were sick or in Third World countries. In one year, she knitted 332 dolls.

I was warmed by her spirit when I interviewed her at home in 2016;  Burke proudly noted that she still shoveled snow and washed the windows and rose before dawn to make bread pudding and thaw blueberries.

Her family prized her for her love, resourcefulness and tenacity; she was proudest of her frugality.

"She was quite amazing and I gave the eulogy and shared fun facts about Gram," her granddaughter Cheryle Gallagher, of Marshfield, a speech therapist, said.

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In a shared memory, David Ring Jr., noted, "At 98 she was still shoveling snow from her driveway, going to the Marshfield Senior Center on the shuttle bus, enjoying the company of her many friends who all loved her."

Thank you Irene, you are missed by many and well-remembered.

Reach Sue Scheible at sscheible@patriotledger.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Milton trailblazer Loraine Sumner, 86, gets seniors into nature