The Cardinal Chronicles

Interview with Annette Gerard (b. 1925)            

By Tanner Burnett and Charlie Torch, on March 7, 2026

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Can you introduce yourself, please? 
My name is Annette Gerard… I'm Tanner. I'm Charlie. 
...Can we.. just start with… just you telling us a little bit about yourself…any way you want to, about where you're from and... maybe what you've worked..

I was born in New York and I lived there until I moved here in 2010. And my husband had his own business - an engineering firm, and I…worked with him. 
I was vice president. I did secretary, bookkeeping, and everything. I had three sons. Two of them unfortunately passed away. 
I'm sorry. Yeah, me too. And I moved to Portland because I have two grandchildren and their families here. 
I don't know what else you want to know.

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Yeah…we'll ask some questions. What was your career like? 
It was mostly that business with your husband? Yeah….What was your... school experience like? 
I…graduated high school… And I got married right after… wartime. 
And then I had a child right away so I did not do anything until my husband started this business when the kids were grown. 

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You met your husband in high school? 
We were twelve years old. Really? Yeah. Sweet. 
We met in a party…And we dated – not dated at twelve, but a group of us used to hang out together. 
And then I started dating him when I was sixteen. That's nice. We have a similar guys/ girls friend group like that. 
Yeah. Let's see…what.. advice would you right now give to your ...your teenager self? My teenage family? 
Or ..what advice would you right now with your experience give to your teenage self? That's a hard question to answer. I don't really know. What's…your favorite place that you've lived during throughout your life? 
Well, I lived in Queens for 60 years in our house, and we were very satisfied, the kids grew up there, and we had a wonderful life there. Yeah. Nice. 


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What were some of like the biggest differences about the world like now versus when you were a kid? Well, for one, what you're holding right there? 
Only electronics. And the craziness in politics..And..the inflation and what everything costs now compared to what it did. It's unbelievable when I hear what everything costs… 
It's wild. Crazy. 

How would you ..would you say you've ..., adjusted [and] …your friends adjusted to the cell phones? 
Well, I don't have a cell phone. You don't? No, my fingers are bad, my eyes are bad…. I'm 100 years old. Really? 
Wow. That's crazy. All right. 
You gotta put up with it. Would you say that a lot of people in your kind of age group, would you say have cell phones or no? 
Most of the people here have cell phones…Well, when I came, I didn't have a walker and I just had keys in the pocket and I had no room for one. And then when my sight failed, and my problems with my fingers, 
I couldn't use it.

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How was growing up in New York? 
It was great. I wasn't in New York, in Manhattan. I lived in the suburbs, which I say all the time. 
And it was fine. We…were very active in organizations. We had loads of friends. 
So we had - everything was good.

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What were some of…the biggest historical events that you would say impacted you, like wars and things like that. Well, wars are impossible, they always are. 
My husband was in the army and I didn't follow him because I had a baby at that time. 
And it was difficult because we had rations. We only..got ration stamps and we…could only get so much butter and so much meat. Each month whenever they gave it… Was…. everyone having to, ...save and ..., contribute to the war effort? Well, they had recycling… in every area, where they collected tin. They collected fats, paper….everybody in the area - metals, they all contributed.

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What are some of your… biggest accomplishments in life? If you like to share. Well, bringing up three sons. 
All were very successful. Now, of course, I have the grandchildren and great grandchildren. And we were very active in local organizations.

…What's the family situation like in Portland right now? Do you have one son here with? No, I have my son and daughter-in-law live in California. 
Son and daughter-in-law in California. But their two children live here. 
So it's two families. One has three children. The other one has two children… You might..even know them. 
What school do you go to? We go to Lincoln High School… 
Oh, no, they go to your rival. They go to Wells. Oh, really? 
Wow. What are some of your grandkids' names? There’s 
Shai Gerard. They were soccer players and basketball. His brother is Micah. 
And we have Maddie Garfinkle, her brother, Ian, and the younger one is Leo. So they range in age from twelve to almost nineteen… Now, if you went to Wells, I'm sure you would know them. 
We really don't know, like, a ton of kids outside of Lincoln. Lincoln's so big..Maybe we might like play sports against them, though, at some point. Yeah, well, they play basketball, track, soccer - they're all into soccer. …

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I said you didn't come with pencils and pads to take notes, and they said, no, they have the... cell phones.., yeah. 
...What would you say were any… trends or ...kind of things that were more common back then when you were a kid or even growing up…versus now that you maybe would have liked to have back then or have right now? Does that make sense? I would like to be a little younger… Otherwise, I don't know-I'm [not] remembering… the trends.....

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When you moved to Portland, did you move immediately to this...? I moved from New York right into here. So you lived here for… like sixteen years ago. 
And was all that time spent in here? Yeah… In Rose Schnitzer….Oh, yeah, I came right here.

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Do you have anything... I know you're 100, but do you have anything that is still on your bucket list, 
that you'd like to do? I'd love to go on Wheel of Fortune. I love that game. Do you watch it? I watch it…. We did a lot of traveling when we were younger…  Well of course, I can’t do it now, but I would love to travel. 

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What are some of your favorite places that you've visited? 
We were in most of Europe. We were in Asia. We were in Canada. 
We were in Mexico. You name it. 
No, we did a lot of traveling. Do you have any place that was your favorite you really liked? Not really… No, we enjoyed the traveling. 
Yeah, we both, we travel a fair amount too, every place is just…Well, I know my great grandchildren. Well, one of them... 
the mother was in USAID and she was two years in Egypt. They were four years in Senegal, four years in Rome. They were all over the place…and these kids, I thought I traveled a lot, but these kids were head over heels…. 


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Do you think it's ..., it's more common for ..., like kids and younger people would travel now than when you were growing up? Well, just from my family and their friends are, they're always going somewhere…I don't know about you kids with family, if you travel a lot. 
But things were different than we grew up at a time where money was very tight. And we couldn't afford to go do it until later on. Were planes, like very accessible back then or no? Oh, yeah. 
Oh, yeah… Well, I'm talking about the 50s and 60s.

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Would you have…any kind of reflection on you living your life, like... any values that you've kept with you throughout your life that you'd like to share? 
Well, on my neck I carry this - this is my husband's wedding ring. And I have it with me all the time. 
He's gone almost nineteen years. And other than that, when I moved here, I brought very little stuff because I didn't know which apartment I would have. 
So I got rid of all my furniture and all, I brought very little here. 

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So....., you guys were living in New York and then a few years after he passed you moved to Portland here? Yeah…Did you guys live in the same house for…a long time? Sixty years. 
In one house? One house. Wow. 
Yeah…We made a lot of changes. Of course, when we bought it, it was very small and we had very little money, but then as years went by, we expanded. And my husband and I did finish the attic ourselves. We finished the basement ourselves. We did a lot of work when you don't have the money. And you need to have these things done… We did them.

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Was it cool to see how like the neighborhood you lived in changed over those sixty years? 
Well, when I decided to move, I went and talked to my neighbor next door, who was an Indian family, and I said to him, I'm gonna sell the house and relocate. And he said to me, don't do anything. I'm interested in it. 
He said… there was so much love in that house that I would like to hold on [to], don't do anything. And then he came back to me and he offered me a price. 
And I accepted it. But when I moved away, he demolished the whole house, put up a big, like a Taj Mahal building, you know. Mine was a two story, and this is a three story on a small piece of property… Is his family living in there now? Well, I don't know who's living in it now. I don't know whether he bought it for family or for what he was doing with it, but shortly after I moved, I got a picture from my friend - all blocked off because of construction. 
Have you been back to visit since? No, I was there – 
I went back the year after for my... stepgrandson's wedding. But I haven't been back since because most of my friends are gone. Either moved away or passed away. 

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Who would you say like the person is in your life that's impacted you the most and had the most kind of impact on who you are today? … I would say my son.. and daughter-in-law. How old is your son? My son is gonna be 79 next month…

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We've [asked] most of the questions here…so I can just ..open it up to you. We can finish at any time or if there's anything else you'd like to share with us. 
Well, I didn't know…what are you using this for? …We can tell you a little bit more about our club. Our club is called the Cardinal Chronicles because we're the Lincoln Cardinals. 
So we… go out here every couple weeks and we have maybe twenty, twenty people in the club and whoever's free that weekend drives out here and then…we will pick someone through the help of Anderson's grandma and… we'll record the interview and we put together some questions that people like to know about, some of the things that we've been asking you about. And then through your responses, we will take the transcript of your recording, and then we'll pick out the parts that we think are…very….interesting, and then we'll share them with the rest of the members in our group when we meet in during the school day. Oh, it has nothing to do with a school project or anything else? 
It's kind of related to our school. Like kids who can use it as a school project… as like a service experience. But mostly… the founders, which are me... and two of our other close friends… we just interested in this stuff and we like to know more. One of the goals of the club is just to kind of connect the older generations with the younger ones and have…advice and…experiences. And then…also, we will take these interviews and we'll most likely end up sharing them with your family. 
So maybe your son and daughter-in-law and we can share these interviews with them.. No, because several years ago, a group was doing this, but they were doing it for a school project. And they made up a picture album.... 
If you wanted to give them pictures or just anything to put in there. Yeah, that we do have..a website that…, we take some photos of people and we just do some descriptions of their interview. 
Oh, yeah. I was just curious because I didn't ask Reva what it was for. You know, she just said, would you do it? 
And I said, sure. Yeah…. that's what the goal is. 
We can, you can pause the interview. We can finish that up right now and if you...