Romona Whaley was among the first to join the Peace Corps and go to Guatemala after the program was launched by President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s
Garden District has champion caretaker
By CHRISTINE GIRARDIN
Staff Writer
Last update: October 25, 2004
DELAND -- Walking along Howry Avenue with grocery bags in hand and a narrow-brimmed sun hat on her head, Romona Whaley never misses a chance to wave at familiar passersby.
A Renaissance woman of sorts with titles including journalist, Peace Corps alum, mentor, cancer survivor and cat fancier, Whaley, 64, is one of those people who can make a few rows of homes feel like a neighborhood.
"I'm in the middle of things and I like that," said Whaley, between interruptions from friends, young and old, who feel free to stop by and knock on her casement windows just about any time of the day or night.
Whaley lives in the Garden District, an 80-year-old neighborhood developers are rescuing from decay, just a few blocks southeast of the city's downtown core.
She was among the first new tenants two years ago, taking it upon herself to adopt the area's stray cats, giving them the monikers of poets and continents, a reflection of Whaley's lifelong interest in literature.
"I'd be happy being cat-free," she said. "But they come to me, so what can I do?"
Since then, she's become the official docent at the Garden District Gallery, a neighborhood newsletter editor and cat caretaker. She established a spay-and-neuter program to stop the strays from reproducing, and finds homes for new kittens of the two older, and much more wary, cats who have learned to evade her traps, cat carriers baited with food.
Whaley does all this in addition to writing for the Apopka Chief, a weekly newspaper, a job she can do from her apartment behind the gallery. It means living a frugal lifestyle, one without a car, but she finds wealth in her friendships with people who find her as dedicated to them as she is to the cats.
Allison Bennett could have opened her new restaurant, The Garden Cottage Tea Room, without encouragement from Whaley. But reflected in Whaley's eyes, Bennett saw that someone else shared her vision.
"I just loved that she had such an interest in seeing us become a reality in this neighborhood," said Bennett, whose pink tearoom is next door to Whaley's apartment. Bennett regularly repays Whaley's friendship with fresh, vegetarian meals delivered through those casement windows. "She cheers me on," Bennett said.
Whaley does the same for the Olascoaga children, five sisters and brothers who live around the corner. Almost daily she spends time with the children, encouraging polite behavior, helping them improve their English skills and just being a friend.
"She's a wonderful lady. She helps people," said Gladis Olascoaga, 13.
Whaley's been helping people for most of her life. It started in earnest when she joined the Peace Corps, among the first to do so after the program was launched by President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s.
"He could make you go and do anything. Go and be noble," said Whaley, who taught English and Spanish during her two-year stint in Guatemala. "It was the best two years of my life and I've had some good times."
Reserved and quiet, Whaley seems to embody that spirit Kennedy and the great authors tried so much to evoke in people. And she's taking it with her into the future.
"It's the spirit of this 1900s place," Whaley said. "It's like Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town.' "
christine.girardin@news-jrnl.com
