Local Life

Jessie Morgan is a lifesaver — literally!
Editor, environmentalist, landscaper, actress and Weaver’s Way employees

Jessie with Madelyn, the injured cat, and her two four-day-old kittens next to a statue of St. Francis of Assisi, the saint of defenseless
animals. (Photo by Len Lear)

by LEN LEAR
When she was five years old, Germantown resident Jessica Morgan (friends all call her “Jessie”), now 55, was given a cute puppy she named Jerry. Jessie fell in love immediately, but the puppy was not house-trained, of course, and proceeded to relieve himself often in the house in Summit, New Jersey, where Morgan grew up. After just one week, Jessie’s frustrated parents took the little dog back to the animal shelter from which he had been adopted.

“Many parents do not realize how quickly children can bond with animals,” said Jessie. “I was so hurt when they took Jerry back to the shelter, it has affected me to this day. It led to the animal rescue work that I have been doing my entire life.”

Modern-day Monet at Morris Arboretum

Gordon Gibfried is seen with two of his paintings in the gallery at Morris Arboretum, in the Widener Visitors Center. (Photos by Marie Fowler)

by MARIE FOWLER
Gordon Gibfried is a modern-day Monet, and his garden is the Morris Arboretum! Water, Trees and Sky, an exhibition of Gibfried’s landscapes created on the arboretum’s grounds, is on view in the Upper Gallery at the arboretum’s Widener Visitors Center through September 4.

“I’ve been painting here for 30 years,” says Gibfried, who still recalls his first visits while a student at the Philadelphia College of Art in the early 1970s. “We were living in the middle of the city,” Gibfried remembers. “There was no green. We’d take the A Local out here with paints and canvasses. This has been a sanctuary for me,” he continues, almost reverently.

Mt. Airy ‘movie man’ projects love of films to senior citizens
by JOIA HARVEY
“My name is Paul Sofian, and I just love the movies!” In Linden Hall, at the Friends Home in Kennett Square, Sofian, 58, is beginning a slide presentation on classic movies entitled “1939, Hollywood’s Greatest Year.” The long-time Mt. Airy resident has been giving presentations of this kind all over the Philadelphia area for the past three years, but he never gets tired of talking about his favorite subject: the movies. This is his fourth time at the Friends’ Home, where he has given all three of his talks, “Marilyn Monroe: The Never-Ending Dream,” “The Great Hollywood Musicals” and “1939, Hollywood’s Greatest Year.”

For the residents of the Friends’ Home, it is a chance to remember the movies of their youth and relive the golden days of Hollywood. Kim Dziembowski, the activities director, enjoys the presentations just as much as the residents, and occasionally joins them in trying to guess who the actors and actresses in Sofian’s slides are. Dziembowski thinks the presentations are wonderful for the residents because trying to remember things from the past keeps the mind active. After the presentation, while giving out a snack, she asks, “Wasn’t it fun to try and remember all those movies?” The residents agree that it was.