Printer Friendly Version - Heather Castrilli: A Friend to Seniors

Heather Castrilli has made Branford her home base for her many activities. By day, she’s assistant director of Madison Senior Services. On weekends, she hits Yankees games with her fiancé Jay and helps with an aged family member in Bridgeport. Photo by Melissa Johnson/The Sound

After a stint at the University of Rhode Island, shoreline native Heather Castrilli’s college career was unexpectedly sidelined by family duties, though in the end it turned out she was in the right place at the right time. The Branford resident now serves as assistant director of senior services at the Madison Senior Center and stills finds herself in the right spot to help family.

The first challenge to Heather’s college plan was a move from Rhode Island to Philadelphia to care for her grandmother after a fall.

“After [the move to Philadelphia], I was trying to figure out what my direction was and finish college and I ended up coming back here, finishing school here at Central [Connecticut State University] through their Charter Oak program. I ended up finishing school and sort of fell into working at the senior center, and I’ve been here for about 11 or 12 years.”

Heather worked her way up, starting out as a secretary and administrative assistant, then became the municipal agent responsible for all the social service programs, and now she’s the assistant director.

Heather’s desk is covered in photos of two little girls. Her nieces, Clara, 3, and Sienna, 18 months, live in Los Angeles with Heather’s brother Nick and his wife.

“They’re so much fun, so we try to Facetime with them all the time. They’re my mom’s first grandchildren, so she’s pretty crazy about them...She prints out all these pictures and I’m like, ‘What am I going to do with all of these pictures?’” Heather says with a laugh. “So I post them up and all of the seniors like looking at them. I rotate the pictures out and they look for the new pictures.”

Heather met her fiancé, Jay, online. The couple lives in Branford and has been together for nine years and recently got engaged (they’re planning a December wedding). Jay is originally from Stratford.

“We met and have been inseparable ever since,” Heather says. “He runs the Connecticut Running Company in New Haven. He’s the manager down there. He loves it and he’s super into sports, so we’re constantly traveling all over the place to different sporting events.”

“I love it. I love working with seniors. I went to school for psychology, but there wasn’t a big focus in school for [working with seniors]. I sort of fell into this and I mesh really well with them. I have a good time with them and relate to them and I love hearing stories.

“I’m working on a quilting project, and my grandma, whom I lived with for a little while, passed away a couple years ago. One of the seniors is helping me work on a quilting project and it’s all pieces of her clothing.”

As for Madison’s Senior Center, Heather (a 1998 Daniel Hand High School graduate) feels she’s again in the right place at the right time.

“The goal is to really connect with the community and be the hub of senior activity for the community and help support them,” she says.

“I’m responsible for all the social service programs here. I help with the tax relief. I’m getting ready to finish that program soon. Rent rebate, I do energy assistance applications, I help with Medicare counseling. Every community should have an advocate to help, it’s overwhelming.”

For fun, Heather and Jay attend a lot of sporting events, go to movies, and travel with friends.

“He’s a very avid Yankees fan, like huge, huge Yankees fan, so I’m kind of a Yankees fan by default. He likes to get autographs from the players. We also take care of his great-aunt, who is like a grandma to him. She lives down in Bridgeport, so I’m down every weekend spending time with her and grocery shopping and visiting and having lunch. So I spend a lot of time with her while he works.”