90 years of perseverance in Peabody – Lynn Item

PEABODY – Any 90-year-old who lives independently has achieved something special. What Joan Ayer of Peabody has achieved is beyond special.

Ayer has been blind since birth and has intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The first 40 years or so years of her life were spent in varied institutions, including state “schools” for people with IDD and schools for the blind. Ayer remarkably transitioned to community living and has achieved an age that would have seemed impossible at the time of institutionalization, when people with IDD routinely passed away in their 30s.