PBMC Nurse Writes Her First Book

What does a psychiatric nurse do to maintain her own mental health?

For Jean Boggio of Belmont, apparently, quite a bit.

Nursing represents only one of Jean's many personae; she's followed more than a few career paths, among them actress, teacher, small business owner. She eventually devoted herself to psychiatric nursing. Now retired and living in Maine, her nursing career resurrected, she cares for patients at the PARC (Psychiatric Addiction and Recovery Center) Unit at Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport. Who would Jean Boggio become next?

At nearly 70, Jean Boggio has blossomed into an author with her own publishing company.

Spritely, petite, with a youthful exuberance that belies her age, Jean is poised to embark upon a national book tour with the release of her first book, "Stolen Fields: A Story of Eminent Domain and the Death of the American Dream."(Colerith Press).

Raised in New Jersey, but with family roots deep in the soil of 18th-century Maine, Jean moved here after retiring from nursing in New Jersey. She fell in love with a 200-year-old Cape Cod house on the Penobscot River, near her ancestral lands. After an entire year of painstaking renovation and restoration of the property, every inch of the house and grounds shows Jean's personal touch. She is, by her own admission, a hands-on over achiever.

With the restoration completed, she found herself with no consuming project before her, and feeling a little lost in that big house in the country. She began working at PARC three evenings a week, but still had substantial time and energy at her disposal, with no apparent creative outlet.

Then a friend encouraged her to attend a memoir-writing seminar at Hutchinson Center in Belfast. After all, everyone has a story, and Jean had always been interested in writing.

That seminar made her realize that her family's story was worth telling, because it would strike a familiar chord with many other Americans. Her research into her family's history uncovered secrets which would lead Jean not only to publishing a book, but would more clearly define her work as a psychiatric nurse.

Jean is a descendant of the Coles of Neville Island, Pa., on the Ohio River outside of Pittsburgh. In the early 1900s, the island was rich farmland, producing choice tomatoes, strawberries and asparagus for the inns, restaurants and markets of Pittsburgh and nearby cities. The Coles were the landed gentry of the area, earning a place at the top of the social ladder. "Neville Island is who we were—who we are," says Jean. "As water ripples out from a pebble thrown into it, so is my generation shaped in the next ring. Whatever our present names, we are the Coles of Neville Island."

Beginning with her mother's memories and her cousin's written collection of family interviews, Jean meticulously researched the Cole family history using every source she could uncover. She pored through family Bibles, papers and letters, early 20th century newspapers and county property records into the 19th century. She pressed older relatives for details and memories. Finally, she and her cousin, accompanied by the her cousin's husband, all in their 60s, visited present-day Neville Island, climbing over a cemetery fence and nearly getting arrested as "suspected teenage vandals" in the process.

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Jean grew up in New Jersey, but her mother, Corinne, was a daughter of Neville Island. Corinne had grown up in the family mansion, a child of privilege who enjoyed great social status. She and her siblings experienced first hand the uprooting and ultimate betrayal of the Cole family by the federal government, under the invocation of eminent domain. The story of the government's deception and the steel industry's takeover of the land that had nurtured the Cole family for five generations became "Stolen Fields."

During World War I, the U.S. government contracted with J.P. Morgan's U.S. Steel Corporation to build a munitions plant that would rival the Kaiser's mighty Krupp Works. The government was persuaded by U.S. Steel that this island—the richest farmland in Allegheny County—would be the ideal site for such a factory.

The island was occupied primarily by wealthy farming families, some of whom had worked the land for more than a hundred years. In May of 1918, the government invoked eminent domain, forcing the farmers out, even before the last crops could be brought in. As it remains today, the landowners were paid only a fraction of what the land was really worth. Some never got paid at all.

Only six months later, the Armistice was signed. The war was over. The farmers were ecstatic, believing they would be able to return to their land and their way of life. Uncle Sam informed them they would be welcome to bid on their properties at open auction; however, their primary and unbeatable opponent in the bidding would be Carnegie Steel, by then a division of U.S. Steel.

The Coles, who had owned their land since 1763, were among the last holdouts. Jean's grandfather threatened the federal agents off with firearms, staying on even as their neighbors departed and bulldozers chewed through their front porch.

"Stolen Fields" tells the story of the Cole family with compassion and humor, engaging the reader anecdotally in a way that brings the characters to life. Family photos add to the feeling of familiarity. Still, Jean didn't hesitate to expose the warts—including the discovery and disclosure of the family's dirty little secret—incest. According to Jean, both her grandfather and her uncle had sought to soothe their emotional pain by engaging in incest with their granddaughters. "I knew nothing of this when I started writing the book," says Jean, "but discovered it along the way as one incident after another was revealed."

For the Coles of Neville Island, the seeds planted with the invocation of eminent domain yielded a harvest of hatred, bitterness, greed and ambition that colored the lives of generations to follow.

For Jean Boggio, documenting her family's story produced sweeter fruit: a sense of connection with her roots, and a deeper understanding of human behavior. In her nursing profession she now counsels and advocates for victims of incest, while enjoying new adventures as a publisher and author.

"Stolen Fields" debuts June 1, 2008. Jean will begin her book tour with a lecture at Camden Public Library June 3, followed by a string of public appearances in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including Neville Island and the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh. For more information, visit www.jeanboggio.com, www.colerithpress.com.