Polly Bradley

Polly Bradley, 92
1932 - 2024
Nahant - Polly Bradley, née Lewis, beloved mother, wife, and grandma, died peacefully on Monday afternoon, aged 92. She lived a full life as a mother, writer, poet, and environmentalist. She leaves Larry, her husband of 68 years; her three children, Randolph (and Randolph's wife Persis), Scott, and Cynthia; and five grandchildren, Costas, Pascal, Maggie, Ivy, Persephone. She also leaves her cherished caregiver, Cynthia Ezeh.
An active member of the Nahant community, Polly won Citizen of the Year in 2002. Co-founder and president of the environmental organization SWIM (Safer Water in Massachusetts), she used her skills as a writer, organizer, and speaker (at many a public-comment meeting) to successfully lobby with others for secondary treatment for the waste water coming out of Boston, for which she received the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Certificate of Appreciation in recognition of contribution to the revitalization of Boston Harbor in 1991. The extent of her citizen activist work to protect the fresh and salt waters of New England led to recognition from the EPA, the Environmental Lobby of Massachusetts, the Saugus River Watershed Council, Gulf of Maine Council on the Environment, and the Massachusetts Legislature and Governor. Though she did not see the ocean until adulthood, she deeply loved and cared for the oceans and rivers of New England.
Born at the height of the Depression, Polly grew up in Oklahoma City, where she lived with her parents, Edith and Robert Lewis, and brother, Bob. They spent many vacations camping, and Polly continued with this adventurous spirit throughout her life, traveling cross-country more than once in an orange VW camper with her kids, and voyaging to all seven continents in seven years with Larry. Polly wrote her first poem in Oklahoma, at age eight, and kept writing into her 80s, self-publishing two books of poetry, and writing down more ideas for poems on scraps of paper and post-it notes.
After high school, Polly traveled east of the Mississippi for the first time after winning the Seven Sisters Midwest Scholarship to attend Harvard-Radcliffe College, where she majored in English. While there, she joined the Harvard-MIT Outing Club and, on a canoeing trip to Lake Winnipesaukee, met Larry Bradley. They both wrote home concerned that the other seemed too tall or too short. (They stood at the same height!) Differing in politics, religion, and how best to eat carrots, it took five years before Larry flew out to Oklahoma, where Polly had moved a few years after college, and proposed. Three days later they married at Polly's family's home and then flew back to Boston. They have spent no more than two weeks apart since.
Polly worked at the Ben Franklin Papers and at the Writer Magazine in her 20s. An at-home mom after Randolph's birth, she and Larry moved to Nahant in the mid-1960s. Polly kept writing. Over 14 years, she wrote 709 columns published as Backyard Frontier, a weekly syndicated column, for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. These articles often featured her children as she taught them about conservation issues. She later worked as an office manager at Tufts University, while continuing to volunteer in town; she loved her involvement with SWIM, as well as the Nahant Village Church, and the Nahant Women's Club.
Polly held onto joy throughout her life, even as she lost the ability to walk and then even to feed herself. Her son, Scott, moved back to Nahant and made Polly's dream to live and die in her own home possible. Later her caregiver, Cynthia Ezeh, came to care for Polly in her final years, giving her loving, kind, gentle support even to her final moments. Polly lived for Randolph's visits and phone calls. She loved having dinner on the porch and talking with Scott in the evenings. She smiled hearing her daughter, Cynthia, and grandchildren sing to her and read her poetry. She enjoyed being read to even after she could no longer read herself. Flowers brought her joy, as did trees, bushes, birds and, of course, the Atlantic Ocean. She loved and was loved.
Service Information: In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Nahant Memorial Tree program. A tree will be planted with a plaque in Lodge Park at East Point in Nahant, overlooking the ocean, in memory of Polly. Donations may be sent to Trish Aldrich, Nahant Open Space Committee Chairperson, at 163 Willow Road, Nahant, MA 01908. Please make checks payable to Patricia Aldrich with a note "Polly Bradley memorial tree".