Getting To Know Our Neighbors: Fran Putnoi

Continuing our series "Getting to Know Our Neighbors," we want to introduce you to Fran Putnoi who with her husband, Don, a retired ophthalmologist, purchased their Esplanade condo in 1990. They had fallen in love with Moshe Safdie’s work when they saw Habitat at the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal. https://vimeo.com/162696124  Fran had said to Don, “Let’s live in a Moshe Safdie building.”  And, almost a quarter of a century later, they were doing just that!

That journey became real when, in 1989, Fran had seen an Esplanade brochure.  She suggested to Don that they take a look.  Don’s first response was “We’re not moving!” from Newton where they had lived and raised their two children. But Fran did not give up and as she says, “It’s beyond the pale when there is something that I want!!” Things began to fall into place for them on their way to their condo in a Moshe Safdie building. Soon after seeing the brochure, Don had a serious back injury. He couldn’t walk or navigate steps and was soon admitted to MGH for tests and treatment. Fran noted that as he settled into the hospital bed, he was greeted by a promotion for the Esplanade condos on the television and the possibility of living on one floor with no steps. 

Serendipity continued. A good friend made an appealing offer on their Newton house and the owner of the Esplanade accepted their bid on the condo they wanted, even adding a second parking space!  “It was a perfect fit for us. We live informally and spend most of our time in the kitchen, deck and bedroom. The kitchen flows onto the deck and the master bedroom is spacious.” As her father always said, “In real estate, buy the best.”  And they felt they had with the Esplanade. (The Putnoi’s also have a home in the Berkshires where they spend much of the summer.)

Reminiscing about the Esplanade when they moved in, Fran said about 1/3 of the condos were filled and 1/3 went up for auction soon after they arrived. The demographics included young Europeans and Middle Easterners; and several friends whom Fran remembers fondly, the McDermotts, the Tyes, and the Bursteins who lived above them in the penthouse.

Fran and Don have two children. Eric, 54, is a practicing ophthalmologist in Wellesley and Waltham. Deb, 57, is an artist with a studio in Brighton. Fran has loved having them nearby and especially being involved in her four grandchildren’s lives. “I have wanted to stay close and it has happened.” By June, three of the grandchildren will have graduated from college and the youngest is a junior in college. “It’s been a joy in my life to be a mother and a grandmother.” Her children have been wonderful parents and that has made life together even more wonderful.

Fran’s family history has had a powerful and ongoing effect on her. Following what her father had said to her: “Don’t let people ever forget,” she has been writing her memoir to memorialize her father’s and the family’s meaningful story. Fran’s father was a prisoner in the Buchenwald and Dachau Concentration Camps while his mother, at the age of 49, held a full-time job and slept in the parks in Vienna to escape capture by the Germans. During her writing, Fran had an unexpected find — four of her grandmother’s letters written around that time. She knew that her father had been a prisoner in Dachau but it was in the letters that she found out more about her paternal grandmother, her strength and her struggles during that time, at a relatively young age and all alone, fearful of capture, hoping for Fran’s father’s return. 

Otto, Fran’s father, escaped with the help of Max Schmeling in 1940 from a monastery hospital where he had been taken to die from typhus. Her grandmother had booked him passage and he arrived in March of 1940 to New York City. Fran’s mother came to New York in 1920 as a five-year-old from Izmir, Turkey. Their meeting and courtship began six months after Fran’s father emigrated. Their courtship and marriage were helped by friends and family, and they ended up in Eastport, Maine, where Fran spent the first five years of her life. Her father worked in one of the sardine plants packing sardines and her mother, whose income paid the bills, worked as a comptroller (she had a college and master’s degree from City College) for one of the fish-packing plants in the town. The family lived in a two-family home shared with a fisherman named Gus Emery.  Her maternal grandmother who lived in NYC moved in with them to take care of Fran and later her sister so their parents could work. Fran marvels at what her grandmother sacrificed to help her daughter and her family. “She left a successful lingerie business, left New York City and all her friends for five years, to help out.” 

Her father’s survival and her family’s values have provided the guiding principles in Fran’s life. “The Holocaust has played such an important role in my life.” To that end, her passion is in connecting with and helping others and making the world a better place. Those who know Fran see this in her everyday life. “It’s what fuels me.”  

This has played out in her thousands of hours of volunteer work with a special commitment to Temple Israel in Boston. It was a revered but “old line” synagogue when Fran joined. The new rabbi who came on soon after was an activist and opened up the temple to new communities. Over the 40 years since then she has put “her heart and soul into it.” Many of the temple’s projects were the product of Fran’s time and talents. She continues to be involved and is proud of where the synagogue is now. It is committed to social justice and communal life. In 1990 Fran became the first woman to serve as its president. She and Don became active in the movement for Soviet Jewry through their involvement with the Temple and their friendship with Rabbi Bernard Mehlman. They took part in one of the missions he organized and also helped resettle newly arrived immigrants. One of the things that she’s “proudest of” is helping a Russian Jewish sculptor successfully settle in the US. She proudly displays the woman’s sculptures in her living room. They continue to remind her that there is a big spiritual piece that’s part of her life, “And I can’t live without it.”

Fran also worked as a corporate art consultant but she quickly adds that “wasn’t really my passion.”  It is a talent and clearly shows in her art collection in their condo.

As Fran thinks about her family’s ability to survive and thrive, she attributes much to the women who sacrificed for others. They were the backbone of the family. Fran explained that both her mother and grandmothers worked; “They were feminists and I didn’t know anything else.”  As she considers the world and its challenges today, she is reminded of her family and its strengths, what they went through and how appreciative she is today with what she has. 

What she has missed in these Covid years is spending time in-person with people, the family gatherings, family holidays together, and traveling. Almost as many positives for Fran include an understanding that “I don’t need to be surrounded by thousands of people. We have missed traveling — we’ve been people on the move. I have appreciated the times of solitude, quietly enjoying the art that surrounds us and re-engaging with the natural world. Don and I have been walking as much as we can, and I try to photograph something alive every day. I love to cook, and have done more, and Don has been a terrific cleaner (something I hate!).”  She is also appreciative at the efforts to build community in the Esplanade. The ECG, the Aging in Place Group, the Listserv, and the book and film groups offer choices for the residents to socialize. And, Fran adds, this shows what we can do and need as a community.

Fran hopes for an in-person April Seder with her family, and also to be able to take them to Turkey for her 80th birthday next November. One of her many blessings is her almost 60-year marriage to Don. As Fran’s mother said, marriage is hard work; you have to stay with it but it’s worth it. Fran said “She was so right. We have been blessed. In this world of impermanence, it’s wonderful to have each other this long.”

So, when you see Fran walking along the river or in the halls, wave and say “Hi.”

Jane Hilburt-Davis