________________ OYSTER BAY _______________
HERALD Coming soon: O.B. Art Night
Keep an eye out for the big guy
Local artist paints Obama portrait
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VOL. 124 NO. 49
DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2022
$1.00
Caring for the caregivers at G.C. Hospital By LAURA LANE llane@liherald.com
Laura Lane/Herald
DANIELLE KERR, A social work intern from Adelphi, far left, volunteer caregiver coaches Christine Mills and Nancy White, and Lorna Lee-Riley, Glen Cove Hospital’s senior social worker, in one of the rooms at the new Caregiver Center.
Nancy White and Christine Mills met in 2018, when they answered an ad for volunteers at Glen Cove Hospital. Sitting next to each other at the orientation, the retired nurses immediately bonded, eventually becoming good friends. They discovered that they lived near each other, White in Glen Head and Mills in Oyster Bay, that their husbands had once worked together in the medical field, and that they had a common goal — to interact with patients again. But their
volunteerism was cut short when the coronavirus pandemic hit. White and Mills were ecstatic when they got a call in March from the hospital, asking them to come back. They would still be volunteering, they were told, but this time as caregiver coaches. “Being a caregiver coach is different than being a regular volunteer,” explained Lorna Lee-Riley, the hospital’s senior social worker and the coordinator of the caregiver program. “They don’t have to have a medical background. We’re looking CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
At Raynham Hall Museum, a chance to meet a ghost? By WILL SHEELINE wsheeline@liherald.com
Halloween has come and gone, but the spooky thrill of the holiday hasn’t yet worn off at Raynham Hall, where the house museum will continue to hold ghost tours through its halls one night per month. While Raynham Hall is best known as the birthplace of American patriot and Revolutionary War-era spy Robert Townsend, it has unofficial notoriety as one of the most haunted homes on Long Island. Numerous ghost-focused websites and surveys assert that the ghosts of numerous residents of the home
are still there, such as Robert’s sister, Sally, and two British officers, John Graves Simcoe and John Andre, who occupied the property during the Revolution. Christopher Judge, head of visitor services at Raynham Hall, explained that the museum offered ghost tours for years, but had taken a break to focus on the rich history of Oyster Bay and the Townsend family. The popularity and notoriety of the building as a haunted place, however, continued to draw ghost-chasers and spiritualists, however, and museum officials reinstated the ghost tours in October. “Raynham Hall is listed in a lot of websites and even some
books as one of the most haunted places on Long Island, and a lot of visitors have said they’ve had a supernatural experience here,” Judge said. “We don’t know how it started, but it’s one of those things that once it’s on the internet, you just can’t get rid of it.” The tours are led by the museum’s tour guides as well as a professional spiritualist healer, Samantha Difronzo, of Hicksville, who has been working in the field of spiritualism for four years. Difronzo got involved in the tours through a friend’s sister, Mary Kenny, a tour guide at the hall who now helps lead the
ghost tours. Difronzo said that when she first visited the museum, she was surprised and excited by how friendly and welcoming the spirits of the old house were. “The spirits — especially the original owners, like Samuel and Sarah Townsend — they want to connect and show that they appreciate everybody that’s com-
ing and seeing their history, and to connect with them,” Difronzo said. “So as we walk forward, they’re walking with us, trying to interact with us and share their point of view.” Difronzo’s role, she said, is more than just “speaking to the dead.” She is tasked with providing a conduit through which the CONTINUED ON PAGE 4