Nan Fuller Models Some of Her
Creations at the Peterborough Senior
Center – Image by Matti Kniva Spencer

BY MATTI KNIVA SPENCER

The Peterborough Senior Center, located at 42 Peterborough Street and one of West Fenway’s hidden treasures, provides its clients with fullfilling activities and skilled people to introduce them.

One such person is Nan Fuller, a senior who recently moved here from Los Angeles and now teaches a knitting class at the center. Fuller retired from the office work she did with the Legal Support Network and moved to the West Fens in April 2009, at the insistence of one of her daughters, Kerry Mooney, herself a resident of the West Fens for several years. Now living close to the Peterborough Senior Center, Fuller teaches knitting once a week to eager seniors who are learning how to make beautiful, colorful scarves.

Says Fuller, “I enjoy doing practical handicrafts and working with my hands. In creating the scarves, I use large yarn and size 15 needles—which allows one to knit at a faster pace. My scarves are unusual, as I always use two different colors when I knit. I bring in the yarn and offer people their choice of colors.”

This fall, Fuller intends to make scarves for the center’s tag sale and holiday events. Proceeds will go to support center operations. Fuller is also available to give private lessons, and anyone wishing to pursue this can e-mail her at [email protected] or call the center at 617-536-7154. She also has a selection of her scarves at the Senior center for anyone who wishes to see her work and/or purchase a scarf. You can attend her classes for free on Thursdays between 10 and 11 A.M. These classes are open to nonseniors, and men are always welcome.

Born and raised outside of Los Angeles—in Canoga Park on the west side of San Bernado Valley—Fuller grew up around people who managed the business affairs of celebrities, which is how she met her late husband, who was a music executive for Columbia Records. Together they raised two daughters, the aforementioned Kerry Mooney, an accomplished muralist, painter and writer, and another daughter who’s a dancer and who does voice-overs for International Games and lives in L.A.

Fuller really enjoys the openness of the diverse group of individuals who live in her neighborhood. An avid gardener who has a plot at the Victory Gardens, she also enjoys attending Shakespeare on Common, going to museums, and the fact that Boston is such a walking city—she enjoys walking a lot.

With the holiday season coming up, Fuller encourages everyone to come by the Senior Center, be a part of her knitting circle, and make that “special friend” in your life a beautiful, colorful scarf. There’s nothing like a hand-made item to give to a friend as a gift.

Frequent contributor Matti Kniva Spencer lives in the West Fens.

A version of this article was published in the September 2009 Fenway News.