{"id":46543,"date":"2023-09-07T14:14:47","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T14:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=46543"},"modified":"2023-09-07T14:14:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T14:14:47","slug":"doherty-leaves-a-fostering-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/09\/07\/doherty-leaves-a-fostering-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Doherty leaves a fostering legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Danielle Ray<\/em>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/em><\/div>\n

STERLING \u2014 Norman T. Doherty Sr. leaves behind a legacy of selflessness, service and family, the kind of family bond not necessarily determined by blood.<\/p>\n

The longtime town resident died Aug. 19 at the age of 84 after a brief illness. Norman and his late wife Nancy (Patterson) raised four biological children, three adopted children, and fostered 165 children of all ages in their home that was filled with love.<\/p>\n

Norman was born March 1, 1939, and served in the U.S. Air Force. According to his obituary, he held many jobs over his lifetime, including as a reporter for McGraw-Hill and then at F.W. Dodge, a realtor at Aberman Realty for several years, and vice president at Wolon\u2019s Enterprises contracting.<\/p>\n

Norman became a CNA later in life, and he loved working at Alterra, later renamed Sunrise Assisted Living, in Leominster, where his patients loved him and his easy humor. He was a firefighter and EMT at the Sterling Fire Department, a first aid and CPR instructor, and a Senior Ski Patroller at Wachusett and Crotched mountains.<\/p>\n

He and wife Nancy, whom he met at a dance, were foster parents for 43 years, fostering dozens of children and adopting three. They were married for 51 years before she died in 2014 and lived most of that time in town, where they moved in 1966 four years after getting married.<\/p>\n

Norman served as a Department of Children and Families ambassador, giving talks at churches and working booths at fairs, and was a notary public. His volunteerism expanded to coaching his children\u2019s sports teams, lecturing at church, collecting for the Bishop\u2019s Fund, and volunteering for various church activities and events.<\/p>\n

Their oldest daughter, Nancy Doherty, said her parents heard about fostering at St. Richards of Chichester, the Catholic church in town where they were members, and \u201csigned up immediately.\u201d When asked what it was like growing up in a home that welcomed so many foster children, Nancy Doherty simply said: \u201cBusy.\u201d She add that she and her siblings \u201cexperienced empathy and inclusion early in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c(My) sister Deb and I were always caretakers,\u201d Nancy said, adding that her parents fostered \u201cmedically fragile children\u201d and seven sets of twins over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would each pick a twin and held them for hours, as they needed extra snuggles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nancy is the eldest of the four biological children; Ken, Deborah and Chip are her younger siblings. When she was 13, her parents adopted Timothy, and then Alex and Amanda were adopted later on.<\/p>\n

Both Nancy and her sister fostered as adults, and are \u201cvery involved in care,\u201d and Nancy adopted, as well. Deborah has a master\u2019s degree and is a board certified behavior analyst working with children and people with autism.<\/p>\n

She hopes people will learn from her parents\u2019 longstanding dedication and selfless devotion to foster children.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople always say the same thing, \u2018Oh, I could never do that, it would be too hard to let them go.\u2019 It is hard, but these children need stable homes while families heal or permanent families are found. The hard truth is there are just not enough foster homes. It does take a village, and people need to be part of the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family moved to Rhode Island for two years when Norman got a job there. Nancy said they \u201cmoved back to Sterling at the first chance\u201d and lived in three homes in town before moving into their Maple Street home in 1977. She bought the house from her dad in 2017.<\/p>\n

When asked what she misses most about her mom and will miss most about her dad, she had a lot to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sister and I spent so much time with Mom, we miss just talking to her as well as our fun trips \u2014 whale watching, the ballet,\u201d Nancy said. \u201cWith Dad, he gave us a love for music, old movies and humor. He loved movie trivia, singing, and all of his grandchildren have a love for \u2018Singing in The Rain,\u2019 dad\u2019s favorite. Deb and I brought music to hospice and sang to him. We loved when he was able to sing along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norman\u2019s wake, Aug. 23 at Miles-Sterling Funeral and Tribute Center, and the funeral mass the following day at St. Richard of Chichester were well-attended, which was no surprise to Nancy and her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so grateful for those who came to pay their respects,\u201d she said. \u201cHe loved his ski patrol people, and they were all at the wake. It meant so much to us. He had friends come from Vermont and Maine for the wake. It is so comforting to see how loved he was. It\u2019s wonderful to see the love and support. Dad was such a lover of people and helping others.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Danielle Ray Landmark Correspondent STERLING \u2014 Norman T. Doherty Sr. leaves behind a legacy of selflessness, service and family, the kind of family bond not necessarily determined by blood. The longtime town resident died Aug. 19 at the age of 84 after a brief illness. Norman and his late wife Nancy (Patterson) raised four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}