Mendes, Donald, of Marshfield, formerly of Scituate and Duxbury, passed away on December 24, 2015 at the age of 81. Donald leaves his brother Elmer of Plymouth and his nieces and nephews.

Donald was born in Scituate and was fourth of six children. When he was around four years old, Donald moved with his family to a house on a cranberry bog in Duxbury. The house had no running water or electricity. Soon after they moved in, Donald fell off a tractor and sustained a head injury which required stitches and hospitalization. Donald left school at age 12 and worked the bogs for the next forty years.

After his parents passed away, Donald stayed in the family home for a few more years until it was condemned in the mid 1970's. Donald lived on a woman's farm, in a converted chicken coop, for a couple of years but she took advantage of him financially. Two local families, the Kaufman's and the Sinnott's, advocated for Donald and brought him to the Department of Social Services to apply for SSI benefits in the early 1980's. Donald lived in Plymouth for one month, at the Salvation Army in Brockton for a couple of years and with the help of Paul Kaufman (his current guardian), Donald was able to get the services he needed to live independently in the Mariner Hill complex in Marshfield from 1986 to 2009. With Paul Kaufman's help, Donald applied for and was deemed eligible for services in 1995.

While he lived at Mariner's Hill, Donald would walk or ride his bike downtown Marshfield and frequented several local restaurants and businesses. Donald was well known around town. As his health deteriorated, Donald gradually accepted more help from the DDS case manager. During the day, Donald spent more and more time sitting in the community room at the apartment complex or smoking on the porch. As his hearing failed and his general health declined, the volume of the TV became louder, his smoking increased and it became clear that he needed more support. It was difficult to support him as Donald was very independent and 'set in his ways'.

As his health continued to deteriorate, Donald was hospitalized, had a pacemaker implanted and had several rehabilitation stays in local nursing homes. After an extended rehabilitation stay, Donald moved to a Shared Living/Adult Family Care arrangement with a family in Marshfield supported by the ARC of Greater Plymouth for about a year. Donald did not adjust to this shared living arrangement, disliked the location, was disrespectful to the caretakers and the home was not optimally accessible. In 2012, Donald was admitted to South Shore Hospital and returned to a local nursing home in Rockland to recover. This was the same nursing home that he resided after several earlier hospitalizations. Donald did well with the structure and routine at the nursing home and indicated that he did not want to return to his former shared living home.

In 2013, Donald moved to a 24 hour staffed home operated by Road to Responsibility in the Grace Ryder apartment complex in Marshfield. The staffing is 2:4 and he lived with three other women of similar age. After the first two weeks, Donald settled nicely into his home. Donald was more cooperative with the RTR staff, wore clean clothes daily, accepted staff assisting in choosing his clothes for himself and was thriving. Donald attended an Adult Day Health program in 2012 until his health declined and he no longer met their criteria. He then attended the Habilitation Assistance Corporation day program in Plymouth until recently.

A Funeral Mass will be held Monday, January 4, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. at the Holy Family Church, 601 Tremont Street, Duxbury. Interment will be in Mayflower Cemetery.

Gifts in Donald's memory can be made to Road to Responsibility, 1831 Ocean Street, Marshfield, MA 02050-4904.

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