A Legacy of Kindness

Marcia Smith-Hutton appreciated beauty: an exquisitely carved Chinese bracelet, a virtuosic piano concerto, an intricate seashell.

What makes this remarkable is that Marcia, who died in 2023 at age 77, was blind from birth. “I brought her a horse head ring back from a trip to Italy and she immediately knew it was a horse head,” said Erika Fine, a friend who met Marcia through her volunteer work with the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. “Then she said, ‘oh look at the tail that wraps round my finger.’ I hadn’t noticed it. She would always ‘see’ things others had missed.”

It was her empathy for the underdog, Erika believes, that inspired her to leave most of her estate to Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. And that empathy dates back to her youth in Paris, when she was a 17-year-old budding concert pianist, said Erika.

Speaking Out Against Prejudice
The students in her class were discussing a pianist who had just won first prize in an international piano competition. The winner was Jewish, and some of Marcia’s classmates proclaimed that a Jew should not have won. Although Marcia was shy, she felt compelled to speak up and told them to stop their reprehensible talk. She was met by silence. A few days later, a student named Michelle, who was Jewish and had witnessed the scene, told Marcia she admired her for speaking up. The pair became fast friends. Marcia spent many Sabbaths and Jewish holidays with Michelle and her family, and she eventually converted to Judaism.

After graduating from the Paris Conservatory, one of the most prestigious music and dance schools in the world, Marcia moved to Boston to study piano in a graduate program at Boston University. When she began teaching piano, and her students would share their problems with her, Marcia enjoyed processing their feelings with them. She realized she was in the wrong profession. She returned to school, earned a social work degree, and became a psychotherapist, seeing patients in her Brookline home office. Ever thirsty for knowledge, she studied psychoanalysis and added that to her therapeutic tool chest. She also was an avid student of Judaism, taking classes with several rabbis and others.

Learning about BHCHP
Marcia learned about BHCHP in 2015. She was listening to a National Public Radio interview with BHCHP President Jim O’Connell, MD, about a book he had recently written called Stories from the Shadows. The book chronicles his 30 years of caring for patients on the street. Dr. O’Connell spoke about learning how to earn the trust of patients who had suffered traumas that would have left him a “broken man.” He told compelling stories about patients who had shaped the doctor he became, including the dying woman who had asked him to take her photo in case her daughters, whom she had lost custody of, came looking for her someday. After she heard the interview, Marcia bought multiple copies of the memoir and gave them out at Christmas and Hanukkah. She also contacted BHCHP and was given a “verbal tour” on the phone of Jean Yawkey Place—the nonprofit’s flagship facility. Erika said that BHCHP’s mission resonated with Marcia. “She identified with those who struggle, and she had many health problems herself,” she said.

Erika remembers her friend as a connoisseur of jewelry, both fine and costume, and a lover of cats: she had five or six. She had a prodigious memory and kept her busy calendar in her head. She spoke English and French fluently, made friends easily, and donated generously to all kinds of nonprofits—right up to the end.

We are so thankful to Marcia for her incredibly generous gift. We are proud to carry forward her legacy of support and compassion. You can include BHCHP in your will or trust to further our mission. A bequest gift allows you to support our program without depleting your current income or assets. You can give a specific dollar amount, a percentage of your estate, or leave a specific asset such as stock, real estate, or other property. It is flexible and you can revise your gift at any time.

For more information, please contact Mary M. Perry, Director of Major Gifts, at mperry@bhchp.org or at 857-654-1048.