There is a North Quabbin region love story that started on a summer day in 1980 at about 6 a.m. at the intersection of Elizabeth Street and South Athol Road, when two joggers almost collided.
In just a few days from now, a new chapter in this story will begin, when Deborah and Jeff Plotkin, a dynamic couple that grew strong roots in the North Quabbin, get in their car and head for their new home in Prescott, Ariz.
On that morning 38 years ago, Deb was running into South Athol Road from Elizabeth Street, when she almost ran into Jeff Plotkin. Fitness, not romance, was on the minds of both of them that morning.
Deb, the mother of a toddler named Derrick, was on the verge of divorce. She was definitely not thinking about men, and was startled to encounter one.
Jeff, one of Athol’s most eligible bachelors, took immediate notice of this “beautiful woman” (his words) and, as Deb put it, “he didn’t stop talking.” She didn’t even give him her name. Within seconds, they went their separate ways.
Not too long afterward, however, they had their first date. Deb, who had purchased an item from Jeff’s uncle Sherman Plotkin at the Plotkin Furniture Store on Exchange Street, returned there on business. Jeff, working the sales floor, saw her and started a conversation that led to a movie date — and then to more dates.
Deb was willing to take a new man into her life who’d be a good father to Derrick, and soon she perceived that Jeff would qualify. Jeff had strong preferences for a Jewish girl, and Deb, nominally Episcopalian but not active in a church, readily converted with the help of a friendly rabbi in Leominster.
Two years after the jogging encounter, with the support of Deb’s parents, Brian and Barbara Sweatman (both now deceased), and Jeff’s parents, Charlie and Natalie Plotkin (both in their 90s and living in Florida), the happy couple was married in Athol’s Temple Israel. As a longtime friend of the Plotkin family, I attended the joyous wedding. The couple lived together on Sanders Street briefly, and then, purchased a home on the shore of Sportsman’s Pond. Jeff adopted Derrick, who took the Plotkin name, as Charlie and Natalie embraced him as their grandchild.
A few years ago, Jeff decided to retire and closed down Plotkin Furniture (which he had taken over from his father and uncle). Shortly afterward, Deb, nearing retirement age from a long career as a family nurse practitioner, had many long talks with Jeff and together they made plans to sell their Athol home and move to Arizona.
Since the sale of the Pinedale Road lake house, they’ve lived temporarily in a rented cottage in Petersham, now filled with boxes of possessions. A few days from now, professional movers will load the boxes up and head west, and a few days after that, the couple will hit the road in their car, destination Prescott, where a contractor has just completed their new house.
As a business owner, Jeff always contributed to community activities. He returned to Athol to run the store after having lived for a year on a kibbutz in Israel, where he felt he had “a patriotic duty to help the Jewish homeland.” Prior to that, Jeff obtained a liberal arts education, garnering a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the American College in Arundel, Sussex, England. He’d begun his studies at Syracuse University in New York State and also attended New England College in Hennicker, N.H.
Deb started out as a licensed practical nurse, then became a registered nurse, adding on a bachelor’s degree at Fitchburg State and a master’s from the University of Massachusetts, Worcester. She briefly was director of nursing at Applewood nursing home in Winchester, N.H., then became nurse-manager at Athol Memorial Hospital’s Community Health Service.
She and I were colleagues at AMH when I was vice president of community relations, and she was vice president of patient care. After the AMH management shift in 1999, Deb continued to expand her horizon, studying at UMass Amherst, to become a licensed nurse practitioner. She was a primary care clinician for several years at North Quabbin Family Physicians, and in recent years at Heywood Medical Group’s Tully Family Medicine.
Home life was important to Deb and Jeff, who had two more children — Joshua, now 34, and Danielle Kya, now 31. Josh moved to California and became an advanced yoga instructor. Kya is an emergency room nurse in Charleston, S.C. Derrick, 41, who works as a site manager for a major construction company, is married and father of a toddler.
With part of the family out west and motivated by a desire to leave the harsh winters behind, Jeff and Deb did lots of research and chose Prescott. It is an attractive city (population 45,000) that has cultural amenities and some of the look and feel of New England.
Raising these three children in Athol in a home that welcomed dozens of adults and youngsters to many social gatherings, small and large, was an essential part of community life for Deb and Jeff. Temple Israel also provided valuable camaraderie. A farewell party for the couple took place there recently.
Both Jeff and Deb speak with enthusiasm about how this community offered them secure, enjoyable lives, and how they reciprocated. During heart-to-heart talks, the couple weighed the pros and cons of relocating. They summed up their decision by stating, “It’s our time now.”