Month: April 2014

A Place to Stop: Useppa’s Butterfly Garden

Butterflies light here, light there, savoring this, tasting that.  Useppans do too, and on a sunny afternoon, butterflies and islanders met in the garden becoming a resting place for both.

Heavy-duty equipment and men in action, members of the Service Department arrived. Tall trees once majestically guarded the Sumwalt Museum eventually growing too big nefariously pushing roots underneath, sticking branches through the roof. They had to be cut down, but in the timeless spirit of Useppa, chunks and pieces were delivered to the Butterfly Garden. A stump is a now table and fat branches places to sit.

Working with Rachel from the Island Nursery, new plants were added to the ones already there. Another arbor is coming. What Colleen and Craig Ligibell started is becoming an institution. Judith Sear and Karen Kaufman are its stewards. Useppans donate their time and money as well, but none of it could happen without the generous contributions of time, plants, and knowledge from the Service Department.

A garden party seemed just the right way to celebrate this collaboration, and when most of the people were gone, a small white butterfly just for a moment, settled on a new flowering plant.

Photos and Story by UseppaGin

Happy Birthday to the Barbara Sumwalt Museum

On April 2nd the Useppa Island Historical Society’s Barbara Sumwalt Museum celebrated its twentieth birthday with Banjo music, a buffet picnic supper, huge birthday cake, and a gathering of old and new friends.

President Bob Stevens welcomed the group and thanked all who made the Museum’s creation possible and all those over the years who contribute to its upkeep and expansion.

A toast to Barbara Sumwalt’s memory, a toast to Useppa’s last 10,000 years of history, and a toast to the stewards who care for the island we love.

Photos by UseppaGin

Sally Bergsten, 1933-2014

Sally Joanne Speicher Bergsten

April 13, 1933 – March 28, 2014

There was a time on Useppa when four island couples connected in a circle of friendship. For years the Bergstens, the Smiths, the Levensons, and the Bacons were a familiar group at the Collier Inn dressed in the old Saturday night tradition of formality. They shared their holidays together. They shared their families.

Back in the late 70’s, Sally and Peter Bergsten bought a place in the Village, and then in the 80’s built a home on Calusa Ridge overlooking Pine Island Sound. Harry and Phoebe Shaw were here then, and Dudley and Carole Kircher too with children and eventually grandchildren.

Sally Bergsten was known for her gardening skills, but she could also hunt and fish with any man. She was from old-fashioned mid-western Scandinavian stock, and could do almost anything…. always with her makeup on and lipstick just so.

Museum events had a bit more flare because of Sally’s involvement. There was always a contingent of immaculately groomed and well-dressed Bergstens at Easter sunrise services on the hilltop where chess is played. Bergsten grandchildren competed in relays, games, and kayak races with the Sipprelles and other spring visitors in the Museum’s Calusa Days. Izaak Walton Kids Fishing Tournaments might have Sally lending a hand to children reeling in their first fish.

Sally and Peter left Useppa a few years ago when life on the mainland was easier than schlepping back and forth, and the island lost a bit of its elegance with their departure. Now Fort Myers and Chagrin Falls, Ohio have lost some as well.

Sally Bergsten died the other day after a long and courageous battle with illness.

Her indomitable spirit is gone, but her example is a legacy left to her family and friends.

Peter and Sally Bergsten were true partners in life during a marriage that lasted fifty-eight years. Now we on Useppa lucky enough to know the Bergstens send Peter our love and our sympathy.

By UseppaGin