By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Medfield Council on Aging (COA) members traveled back to the year 1620 as Abigail by Gail brought the immersive story of the Pilgrims and Plymouth to The Center at Medfield. During this event, Gail Hamel transformed into Abigail Whitney, a Pilgrim who lived nearly 300 years ago, to tell the story of her ordinary family living during extraordinary times.
Throughout this performance, attendees were able to discover the religious discipline, emerging leaders, and hardships the Pilgrims faced while living in England and the Netherlands. COA members also learned how the Pilgrims managed their treacherous voyage aboard the Mayflower, how they acquired insight into how the location of the first settlement in New England was determined, how order and democracy were maintained, and why relationships with the Native Americans were absolutely essential for their survival.
Since the audience was meeting Abigail Whitney for the first time, she began by telling them about her life as an 18th century Pilgrim, before jumping back in time to discuss what life was like for her relatives in the 17th century. She explained that she was born and raised in Boston, MA, and went on to marry her childhood sweetheart Samuel. She later became the beloved mother of seventeen children and her family moved from Boston to Concord, then back to Boston, and eventually retired in Castine, Maine.
Once she had introduced herself, she discussed her ancestors in great depths, using an array of items she brought in from her past to help visualize her story. Abigail went into incredible detail about the clothing she wore versus what her ancestors wore, who the important Englishmen were during the creation of the Mayflower, what Bible they studied from and more.
Perhaps one of the most interesting facts of her story was when she described the provisions each family was able to bring onto the Mayflower. While listing off each of these provisions, Abigail had miniature visuals of each, showing attendees realistically just how little families could bring. She explained that each family going onto the Mayflower were only allowed to bring one wooden chest. Within this chest, they would bring things like one pot, one mortar and pestle, one tankard, and/or one wooden spoon or ladle. While clothing was also an essential, families needed to ensure they had utensils to cook with when arriving at the new land. Many families even had to fight to bring a cradle onto the ship for their babies.
Abigail additionally told COA members that altogether, there were 102 people aboard the Mayflower, including two dogs, a Mastiff and Spaniel. Out of the 102 people, 49 were men, 18 were women, and 35 were children under the age of 25. Surprisingly enough, Abigail further stated that many of these children aboard the Mayflower were traveling with a different family than their own, since parents were hoping their children would have a better future in the new land and shipped them out with another family.
Overall, this incredible performance by Abigail Whitney through Gail Hamel was extremely informative and entertaining. Seniors were able to walk away either learning something new or just genuinely enjoying the experience. For more information about Gail Hamel’s performances, please visit her website at www.abigailbygail.com.
