Essex County Seniors Share Life Stories, Earn Awards In Writing Contest

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Eight talented seniors from Essex County recently earned recognition as part of an annual writing contest. Winners and honorable mentions hail from Caldwell, East Orange, Fairfield, Newark, Nutley, Maplewood and Verona.

The 2025 Essex County Senior Citizen Legacies Writing Contest encourages local residents to write essays about the people and events that have influenced their lives.

Sponsored by the Essex County Division of Senior Services, the contest launched in 1996. Entries are judged on the writer’s ability to engage the reader with humor, emotional impact or rich descriptions. Winning stories were selected by a committee of volunteer judges and staff from the Essex County Division of Senior Services.

Selected as winners of the 2025 Senior Citizen Legacies Writing Contest are Carol T. Jenkins from East Orange who wrote “The Day Dad Died,” Linda A. Buset from Nutley who wrote “Eleven Years,” Eva M. Ogens from Caldwell who wrote “Rich in What Matters” and Maryam Bey from Newark who wrote “Your Life Struggles Prepare Your Purpose.”

Receiving honorable mentions are Pamela Gaston from Maplewood who wrote “My Little City,” Glenda R. Mattox from East Orange who wrote “Teachers that Taught Me,” Coni Evans from Verona who wrote “Toby the Hot Dog Man” and Geremia Helou from Fairfield who wrote “A Forever Frozen Moment.”

County officials provided the following summaries of each entry:

East Orange resident Carol T. Jenkins wrote “the Day Dad Died,” which was selected as one of the winning stories. Ms. Jenkins describes herself as “daddy’s little girl” when she was growing up. Despite living on a budget, her father, Courtland, always would give in and get her what she wanted: tickets to a doo wop concert, a drawing kit and a new hat, to name a few. When she got older, she visited her father weekly. However, one day when she arrived, fire trucks were at the apartment building where he lived. She learned later that the fire started in her father’s residence after he fell asleep while cooking. She visited him in the hospital every day; “I knew that he knew I was there because the electronic monitor near his bed would spike,” she wrote. After five days in the hospital, her father passed away.

Nutley resident Linda A. Buset wrote “Eleven Years,” which was selected as one of the winning stories. The last 11 years were not easy for Ms. Buset and her family. She was taking care of her aging parents, she and her husband underwent cancer treatment, and her daughter suffered a stroke. Her parents passed away about two months apart and her husband, after going into remission from cancer three times, passed away. “Without family, good friends and support groups, I don’t know how we would have made it through emotionally or financially. I am thankful every single day I have a family who supports each other no matter what. It’s in the difficult times that we find our strength,” she writes.

Caldwell resident Eva M. Ogens wrote “Rich in What Matters,” which was selected as one of the winning stories. Ms. Ogens writes about her father, who escaped Nazi Germany in 1939, came to the United States and worked in a metal and machine shop. He fought in World War II and was proud of his U.S. military service. Having grown up on a farm in Germany, he had a connection to the land and his backyard garden was his refuge. To explain how honest her father was, Ms. Ogens wrote that he once ran after a plumber who forgot to leave his bill. “While we never had a lot of money, we had a lot of love. There was never a question of that!” she writes.

Newark resident Maryam Bey wrote “Your Life Struggles Prepare Your Purpose,” which was selected as one of the winning stories. Ms. Bey writes that she believes the difficult times she experienced growing up prepared her for her life’s work teaching and helping others. When she couldn’t find childcare for her children, she opened her own childcare center. Then she went back to school, earned her GED and college degree. While working as a teacher in an inmate re-entry program, she connected with her female clients because of their similar upbringing in abusive families. “I didn’t let my past break me; it prepared me to love and value myself,” she writes.

Maplewood resident Pamela Gaston wrote “My Little City,” which received an honorable mention. Ms. Gaston writes about winning an essay contest in the 8th grade to name Arcadia Gardens, an 8-acre housing complex in East Orange that was built in 1969 and demolished in 2003. As a student, she felt overwhelmed at the dedication ceremony; it was a hot summer day, the East Orange mayor and council were present, and her mother and relatives were in the audience. The ceremony was Ms. Gaston’s “uncomfortable 15 minutes of fame,” but she was proud to win the contest. As she grew older, when people from out of town visited, she took them to Arcadia Gardens to see her essay and photos of the dedication that were enshrined in a display case. When the complex was demolished in 2003, she was heartbroken to see the now-vacant lot.

East Orange resident Glenda R. Mattox wrote “Teachers that Taught Me,” which received an honorable mention. The essay by Ms. Mattox pays tribute to the teachers she had as a student at South Eighth Street School in Newark. She reminisces about class trips to a fire house, an art museum in New York to see the Mona Lisa and the Newark Museum and admits while she excelled in reading and English classes, she was not as good at math. Back then, she writes, “a Newark classroom was as good a place to learn and grow as the city was to live.”

Verona resident Coni Evans wrote “Toby the Hot Dog Man,” which received an honorable mention. When he was a young child, Ms. Evans’ father was mischievous and always was getting into trouble. Back then, the milkman delivered milk, cheese and other goods by horse-drawn wagon. When he decided to replace his aging horse Dingo with a younger horse, her father tried to save Dingo by taking it from the stable and hiding it in the basement of their house. Of course, he returned the horse and had to do extra chores as punishment. The family was religious, but Ms. Evans’ father, whose name was Thomas, was not. Instead of going to church, he would sneak away and use his collection plate money to buy hot dogs from Toby’s stand. Because of this, Thomas earned the nickname “Toby” and even got a tattoo on his arm with the name Toby.

Fairfield resident Geremia Helou wrote “A Forever Frozen Moment,” which received an honorable mention. Ms. Helou writes about a moment just before her college graduation that affected her throughout the remainder of her professional career. Although she submitted an original work, an English professor accused her of plagiarizing an essay about Shakespeare, causing her stress and anxiety. She graduated college and became an English teacher, and throughout her entire career remained vigilant about plagiarism, even teaching a college-level course to educate and dissuade students from doing it. “That moment paved a path for me,” she writes. “Somehow it became my passion to prevent anyone from having that awful breaking anxiety and emotional depression that I lived through.”

“Our Senior Citizen Legacies Writing Contest is a unique way for our older population to share their life’s stories and describe the people and events that helped to shape their lives,” Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said.

“Our seniors’ stories make you laugh and touch your heart,” DiVincenzo said. “They provide us with a different perspective on historical events and what our society was like.”

The Essex County Division of Senior Services offers a range of services to eligible Essex County senior citizens. The division offers adult protective services, provides basic transportation services, administers adult day care centers, offers counseling services for caregivers, provides home delivered meals and offers visiting nurse services. For more information, call 973-395-8375.

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