A dog's tale
Simmons' book hit the shelves of local stores
By Caitlyn Kelleher Journal Reporter

Janet Simmons has gone from psychiatric nursing to teaching to writing during her first 85 years of life.

Her most recent achievement is the publication of Meet Mr. Howard, D.E., which will be on sale at the Ashburnham Pharmacy as well as through Barnes and Noble Company. The book took her four months to write and more than two years to get published but the time commitment just makes the small paperback book more special.

"It's very hard to get a publisher," Simmons said.

She found Vintage Press out of New York City after sending out 50 to 60 manuscripts.

The book is a collection of letters written by Mr. Howard, a mix black Labrador and golden retriever.

The idea for the style of the book came after her own dog received a present.

"My niece sent me a bull stick for Christmas as part of my dog," she said. "So I wrote a note back to her dog."

The letters give a dog's view of human behaviors and emotions.

She said the book takes the journey of some her experience as a psychiatric nurse.

"(The job) fascinated me," she said. "You had a lot of freedoms, that you didn't have in regular nursing."

She said the independence in making decisions for the patients drew her to the field.

Over the years she saw many changes in the treatment of the mentally ill, some she thinks were for the better while others she thinks made the patients' lives more difficult.

"The violence is gone, which is good," Simmons, a registered nurse, said.

One that had both results was making some of the patients get jobs out in the "real" world.

Simmons did transition into regular nursing and teaching for a brief period when she joined the Navy Nursing Corps during World War II. She was stationed in Brooklyn, NY for two years beginning in 1945, as she trained the Navy Corpman, who were sent into battle with the Marines.

"We weren't supposed to be doing the nursing," she said.

At one time she was helping the injured veterans coming back stateside, and there was a young man who was going to be paralyzed for the rest of his life being carried off on a stretcher. He was singing a 1945 song by Fleecie Moore . Caldonia.

The lyrics, "what makes your big head so hard," will forever be imprinted on Simmons memory with his picture.

Also during that time she also served in the local hospital to help the wives and families of the servicemen.

"They put me to work in the new born nursery," she remembers with a laugh.

The now mother of three, grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of five, had very little training with babies at the time.

She returned to Massachusetts in 1947 and returned to work in the psychiatric wards of the local hospitals. She met her husband, while working in the hospital.

"He came to work for me," she said.

The couple then had three kids and lived all over the state, before settling in Ashburnham. All three of Simmons children - Anne, Mary and George - all live in Ashburnham. Simmons lives with her son and his wife on Hastings Road.

Simmons also enjoys relaxing with the arts, as she participates as often as possible at the annual craft show in Westminster. She usually sells her three-dimensional needlepoint, which is created by reflecting a typical needlepoint drawing in a mirror as it is framed.