Donna Vitucci writes her stories while also advocating for the Covington Ladies Home
By Anthony Wyatt
NKyTribune reporter
Nestled along the tree-lined avenues of the Licking-Riverside Historic District lies what Donna Vitucci refers to as “the best kept secret” in downtown Covington. It’s neither a restaurant nor a bar, and it’s not a new face in town. Rather, this hidden gem is the 130-year-old Covington Ladies Home, a legacy organization that has been a cornerstone of the community and a refuge for women since the 19th century.
Founded by Ellen Dietrich, the Covington Ladies Home was initially established in response to the disastrous flood of 1884. Along with fellow local philanthropists, Dietrich saw a great need for the community to assist poor, elderly and displaced women.
Two years after the flood, Dietrich began taking the sick and downtrodden ladies of Covington into her own home on Russell Street. Within a few years though, her ministry had to expand in order to keep up with the growing needs of the community.
In 1894, the “Home for Aged and Indigent Women,” as it was called, moved to its present location in a Victorian mansion on the corner of 7th and Garrard. Since then, although much has changed in the neighborhood and inside of the building itself, the organization’s commitment to the women of Covington has remained steadfast.
Spreading the word about Covington’s ‘Best Kept Secret’
Today, the Covington Ladies Home has a total of 32 private residential rooms, most of which are currently filled. The Home is a personal care facility, meaning it houses residents over the age of 65 who can no longer live safely on their own, and it boasts a 24-hour nursing staff for each floor, full dining and housekeeping services, wireless internet and even an on-site beauty salon.
Unlike traditional nursing homes or assisted living facilities, the Covington Ladies Home will not turn away any woman because of her financial situation. For those who are able, there is a sliding scale for monthly rent. The Home is a non-profit organization supported by donations, grants and an endowment.
“Our mission is to care for these women, no matter their economic circumstances,” said Donna. “We make it work for them. That’s why the Ladies Home is such a wonderful resource.”
The Covington Ladies Home
Development Director for the Home, she plays a crucial role in spearheading fundraising efforts and coordinating outreach events. As a five-year resident of downtown Covington, she sees helping this historic landmark as an honor and not just a job.
“Lots of times we’ll tell people about it and ask if they’ve thought about the Ladies Home,” Donna explained, “and they’ll ask what it is and where it is.”
2016 marks the 130th anniversary of the founding of the Covington Ladies Home, and it also marks the beginning of a capital campaign to upgrade and expand its facilities.
The organization hopes to raise $5.3 million in order to build a new residence facility connected to the historic home. In this new facility, each resident will have her own private bathroom, and the infrastructure will be completely updated.
“My goal for the Ladies Home is to help them build this building,” said Donna. “It’s a huge commitment, and I’ve felt inspired by the need.”
The Covington Ladies Home has already raised over $350,000 for the project, but much more support from the community is needed before it can see its revitalization come to fruition. On August 4, the Home had its fundraising kickoff, and they hope that the anniversary gala on October 22 will continue to inspire the community and encourage neighbors and friends to lend a helping hand.
“I used to walk by the Ladies Home, and I thought to myself, ‘I would love to work there,’” Donna said. “And it just so happened that they ended up hiring me, and the rest is history . . .The women really deserve it. They’ve raised their families, they’ve taught their children and they’ve had jobs and contributed to the community, and now it’s our turn to take care of them.”
From outreach to authorship
When she’s not working at the Covington Ladies Home, Donna can be found penning stories and novels. Although she’s quick to tell people about her professional job at the Ladies Home, her career as an author is no less successful and impactful.
Donna began writing at a very early age, but it wasn’t until she finished graduate school at the University of Cincinnati that she seriously began writing for publication. Over the past couple of decades, as changes in her personal life have impacted her family, career and living situation, her desire to write has only strengthened.
In addition to having short stories published in numerous journals and magazines, Donna’s most recent work, her entitled At Bobby Trivette’s Grave, is a jewel in her writing crown.
The ladies at play
Set in rural Paris, a town northeast of Lexington, At Bobby Trivette’s Grave follows the Finch family as they struggle to cope with the death of daughter DruAnn’s boyfriend, Bobby Trivette. The novel wrestles with the universal themes of love and loss alongside of more localized issues such as the importance of geography, changing life in rural America and the legacy of the Cane Ridge Meeting House.
According to Donna, the genesis of her novel began not with a fascination with Paris, but rather with a character and a situation.
“I started writing the book, and I didn’t know what it would be about exactly,” Donna explained. “I knew that it would be about a girl who lived in an area that wasn’t very populated, and she was going to make a remark to her mom, ‘You know, this isn’t Paris.’ I decided to look at a map, and I found Paris, Kentucky. So, I went down there and drove around, and I thought it was a perfect place for the novel. I didn’t really know Paris at all until I went down there.”
After deciding on her setting under such serendipitous circumstances, Donna began researching the town of Paris. As her writing of the novel progressed, Donna immersed herself in the area’s history, and she found many of its notable landmarks significant for her story.
“When I started doing research and I found out the Cane Ridge Shrine was right there, I thought it was almost freaky how well everything was working out,” Donna recounted. “That’s when I decided that Bobby Trivette was going to be a descendant of somebody who had been at the Cane Ridge Shrine, and that was going to shape his personality. It just went from there. It a was learning experience for me, and I had a great time doing it.”
While the novel is intimately tied to its geography and the history of Paris, Donna sees it as a story with meaning and value for any reader.
“The story is universal in that it’s about a family whose daughter’s boyfriend is taken way too soon, and it makes all the characters think about how they’ve been living their lives,” Donna said. “I wanted the story to be universal in its experience for the reader. It’s about losing a loved one, and that can happen to anybody.”
For Kentuckians, however, the location of the story holds a special meaning, giving the novel an even richer and deeper significance for those who know the region.
“I think that Kentuckians who are familiar with the Cane Ridge Shrine and the Lexington area would have similar reactions to how Cincinnatians feel when they read the work of Curtis Sittenfeld and see her descriptions of Hyde Park or Over-The-Rhine,” explained Donna. “There’s almost a pride about it.”
The life of a writer
Given the success and breadth of her career as an author, one might imagine how Donna finds the time and the energy to balance writing with her job at the Covington Ladies Home.
“It’s hard,” she said. “I have weekends, and I have evenings to write. I bike and walk a lot, and I think about my writing while I’m doing that. I find time to do it here and there.”
One of Donna’s greatest inspirations is the renowned Mexican painter and feminist, Frida Kahlo. “I love her independence,” she said, “and through great pain and hardship she continued to do what she wanted to do. I don’t want to say I’m like Frida Kahlo, but I will say that there have been plenty of times when I’ve thought, ‘Oh this writing is just too hard, and I’m just going to stop.’ But, I can’t stop.”
Indeed, Donna shows no signs of ever slowing down her writing career, and she has been steadily building her anthology throughout the years.
Since completing At Bobby Trivette’s Grave, Donna has continued work on a novel about family life in Fernald, Ohio, which housed a uranium processing facility during the Cold War. The novel, entitled Salt of Patriots, has been accepted by Rebel ePublishing and is due for release in May 2017. The first chapter of the work currently appears at the end of At Bobby Trivette’s Grave.
Donna also continues to publish works of short fiction in journals and magazines, and she has a couple of stories scheduled for publication in the coming months.
More than anything else, Donna credits the successes of her writing career to having a strong support network. Donna is part of a local writer’s group, and she explains that discussing her work with supportive friends, especially ones who are of a similar age and background, helps her craft better stories and grow her ideas.
“We’ve been together for more than fourteen years. We bring work to our meetings each month, and that motivates me to keep writing,” she said
Another writing group that Donna credits with her development as an author is Wild Acres, a writer’s retreat in Marion, North Carolina. “I found a wonderful summer writing workshop,” she said, “and I went there for more than fifteen years. It was a very supportive community, and I got to meet and work with some really great people such as Ann Hood and Ron Rash.”
Over the past years, Donna’s support network has grown tremendously thanks to the Internet. Through channels like Facebook and blogs, Donna stays connected to friends and mentors from Wild Acres and from the annual conference of the AWP, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
“I have a wonderful group of online friends,” Donna explained. “They’re all very supportive, and some I’ve never even met in person. They’re in California, Virginia and New Jersey, and there are even some from Brazil and India. It’s really wonderful what the Internet’s been able to do, to allow us to grow in so many ways. We’re not sequestered anymore. I don’t think the writing life is as lonely as it used to be.”
Being a part of these online communities has also prompted Donna to gravitate towards digital publishing for her work. “Selling books isn’t my main focus,” Donna said. “Being read is the main thing, and that’s why when I publish short fiction online, it’s almost more satisfying than having something in print. When it’s online, so many more people can read it.”
By publishing her work digitally, both her short stories and novels, Donna hopes to reach a wider array of readers. Anyone can purchase Donna’s work online, and links to her stories and novel can be circulated on blogs, websites and social media.
The one caveat to this system is that independently published work cannot be found on the shelves at libraries or at large bookstores. Since work like Donna’s is printed on-demand, the publishers do not make the high volume necessary to be sent to these locations. Nevertheless, Donna still markets her novel at local venues and bookstores, such as Roebling Point Books & Coffee in Covington and Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Crestview Hills.
Between the capital campaign for the Covington Ladies Home, readings and book signings for At Bobby Trivette’s Grave and continued work on her next novel, Donna Vitucci has a busy schedule ahead.
“I think my stories are important for people in general, not just for those in this area,” Donna said. “I think a lot of people get stuck in a bubble of thinking that the world is a certain way, and for better or worse go operating in the world based on the behavior they’ve been immersing themselves in. We all need to be more well rounded, though. That’s how we understand each other. We have a very diverse country, and we have a diverse culture even here in Northern Kentucky. The more we know about one another, the more we can sympathize with one another.”
For more information about the Covington Ladies Home or to pledge a donation for its capital campaign, visit its website. To learn more about At Bobby Trivette’s Grave, visit the novel’s Facebook page or purchase a copy from Amazo.
Schedule of upcoming events
Sunday, September 11: Annual Friends and Family Picnic for Covington Ladies Home
Tuesday, September 27: Reading and Book Signing at Joseph-Beth in Crestview Hills
Saturday, October 22: 130th Anniversary Gala for the Covington Ladies Home
