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Sharing Memories Of Family And Determination With Gloria

photo by provided Gloria Vigario Clovell and her daughter Maggie pause to share a smile and many memories of the strength of family.

photo by provided

photo by provided

photo by provided

photo by provided

Friday February 24, 2017

By Cookie Steponaitis

Gloria Vigario was born in Newport, Vermont in 1945 smack in the middle of a total sibling count of three girls and three boys. Never without things to do Gloria remembers endless games of baseball and Hide and Seek no matter the time of day or season of the year. Loving animals and being outdoors, Gloria faced her first challenge early in life when an illness left her with acute hearing loss. She was sent to the Vermont Achievement Center in Rutland, Vermont and learned to lip read and live her life without the ability to hear much beyond simple sounds. It met Gloria had to live away from her family and stay with a foster family five days a week and only going back to Newport on weekends. Gloria grew up fast with one foot in two parts of Vermont and  conquered many challenges long before leaving what was considered childhood.
    Today Gloria is the mother of four, Joseph, Maggie, Mary and Gina, grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of little Easton and looks at life through a simple but powerful lens. “We have always tried to stay together as a family,” shared Gloria. “We manage to get together to celebrate birthdays, picnics and Christmas is one of my favorite times. We do a Yankee swap and my daughters put on a beautiful dinner. We open up presents, talk and laugh. We love being together.”
    Gloria was still in school in Rutland when she met Joseph Covell at a church event on a Sunday. The couple married soon after and started raising a family together. Gloria was always one to have a meal on the table and from the beginning coordinated her jobs and work schedule to revolve around the kids’ school schedule. “I worked for years cleaning,” shared Gloria. “It allowed me to see the kids off to school and to be home when they got out and that was very important to me.”
    Gloria lived and worked close to the Rutland Fair Grounds and often found herself coming in contact with the celebrities who came to give concerts such as Charlie Pride, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos or others. Gloria gives a chuckle and a shake of her head as to some of the crazy antics she saw go on. Whether facing the death of her mother, her hearing loss, follow up surgeries and a host of new implants over the years, Gloria Covell keeps to the same attitude that your home is where your heart and family is. Happily sharing stories of all her children, there is a pride and a gleam present in her eyes as she recounts Maggie and Mary making sure no one is ever left out of family gatherings or Gina’s tireless efforts to save horses through her Springhill Horse Rescue. Gloria is all about family.
    “I am a bit stubborn,” explains Gloria, “and a bit independent too. And I guess that I got that trait from my own family. But family is family and I always made sure we got to do things together. Whether it was camping or simply going out to the woods and walking together we were a family unit. I told the kids I didn’t want a 70th birthday celebration. So, what to my daughters do? They plan my 70th birthday and hold it on my 69th birthday. I walked in and was in shock. I guess you could say that the stubborn gene passed on farther than me.”
    Upon looking back at the changes in technology and the adaptations that allow her to live independently and to hear, Gloria Covell is thankful for many things. She remembers her father’s teaching to pay her bills on time and to work helping your family and others. She cherishes the nights she was asked to babysit and have all the kids over to the house and now embraces the stage of spoiling them and sending them back to their parents. She loves that her family is still close and encourages everyone that time is the greatest gift you can give anyone because you cannot take it back and you give people joy just by being there. Lastly, to the teachers who gave her the ability to read lips, she has never lost the skill and can even do so from across the room.
    The Valley Voice salutes Gloria Vigario Covell and knows that her determination, spunk and love of family has made its way to her children and her seven grandchildren Joshua, Zoey, Riley, Kelli-Jo, Rikki, Gloria and Robert. “We spent time together,” concluded the great-grandmother. “That’s what family does.”
 

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