Celebration marks 65 years on the job for Landmark’s 2020 Employee of the Year
Receptionist Ida Peloquin has no plans to retire
WOONSOCKET — Ida Peloquin has been working at Landmark Medical Center since Eisenhower was president, so when the hospital threw her a surprise party, the reason might seem like an easy guess.
But if you figured the 82-year-old receptionist in the COVID-19 unit is retiring, you’d be wrong.
She’s Landmark’s 2020 Employee of the Year, and Mars is closer to Earth than the thought of retiring is to her mind.
“This is my second family,” says Peloquin.
Plus, the money comes in handy to finance her principal pasttime – playing the slots at Twin River in Lincoln.
“It’s my pin money for casino day,” she says.
A lifelong resident of Millville, Peloquin was ambushed by a conference room full of coworkers, family members, cake and balloons on Thursday for a belated celebration to mark her 65 years on the job. She actually reached the milestone on June 25, 2020, but due to the prevailing restrictions on indoor gatherings at the time, the party was postponed until the rules loosened up.
“Don’t fly away,” someone yelled as the physically slight guest of honor was handed a bouquet of helium-filled balloons.
Nothing – or almost nothing – can keep Peloquin away from work, which she threw herself into with even more
fervor after her husband died 24 years ago. But one thing that kept her home recently – and she could barely endure
the interlude – was catching COVID-19 in December.
“It made me weak,” said Peloquin, but that was about it. And she was back on her feet in no time.
Peloquin started working at Landmark before she turned 16 years old after her grandmother, a housekeeper employed by the facility, suggested she’d be a good fit for the former Woonsocket Hospital. She started out as a nurse’s aide and did that for 25 years. Since then, she’s been doing secretarial chores and has been assigned, at one time or another, to just about every unit in the hospital. About the only place in the 215-bed acute care facility that she hasn’t worked is the kitchen.
Ironically, Peloquin is now assigned to the COVID-19 unit Landmark set up last spring to care for patients afflicted with the virus. Since she caught it herself – who knows where, she says – Peloquin has been fully vaccinated, but even before that she was never worried about working in close proximity to infected patients, or at the hospital in general.
“I wear my mask,” she says. “I’m prepared at work.”
But Peloquin did notice that COVID-19 changed the atmosphere at work for a while. People seemed unusually serious.
Peloquin usually gets up around 4 a.m. and is at work an hour early because she likes to mingle with the overnight shift before they leave and give herself some time to get settled. She likes to “ease into” work in the morning.
Retiring? “Are you kidding?” says Carolyn Kyle, the hospital’s communications director. “She’s got more energy than everyone in this room put together. She’s such an inspiration to everyone here.”
Hospital President and CEO Michael R. Souza told Peloquin she’s the easiest person in the hospital to greet because she shares a first name with his mother and grandmother, both named Ida.
“I’ll never forget her name,” he says. “Whenever I see her in the hallway I don’t have to squint at her badge.”
Peloquin has three children – daughters Lisa Chaves and Cheryl Guyette and son Roger Peloquin Jr. – with whom she lives. It’s no surprise to them that their mother is like the Energizer Bunny of Landmark Medical Center.
“Like she said, this is her second family,” said Chaves. “She’s always a worker.”
“When she can’t get there anymore, I’ll drive her,” adds Guyette.
Peloquin says the reason she has no plans of retiring is that she has no idea what she’d do with herself. She has a sister in Florida that she visits for four weeks a year, but she really doesn’t want to live there. She doesn’t go out much and likes being close to her children.
But one abiding passion for Peloquin, other than her real kin and the hospital family, is going to Twin River Casino. She was numb with boredom when Twin River shut down due to COVID-19. But she didn’t need to listen to one of former Gov. Gina Raimondo’s regular press briefings to find out when the gambling venue was ready to crack open the doors – she got an invitation.
She’s such a good customer that Twin River sent her a personal letter and offered all kinds of perks to get her in front of slots again.
“That’s my fun,” she says. “I love to go to the casino.”