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Sherline Montgomery is more than a jigsaw puzzle enthusiast.
“It is an addiction — an obsession,” she told me with a laugh.
The 78-year-old Pleasanton resident began to connect the pieces only six years ago, and as of last week she’d reached her goal of 777 puzzles completed: some were 500, 750 and 1,500 pieces, but most were 1,000. One was 2,000.
“It used to take me a week to do one, then I did a couple a week, and now I have the challenge of doing one a day,” Sherline said. “I’ve done a few 500s — those I can do in 3-1/2 hours.”
“First I do the frame and sort categories by color, people’s faces or animals, and words. I put them together and go from there,” she explained.
Sherline taught school for 30 years, at Vintage Hills, Alisal and Walnut Grove elementaries, and Valley Christian.
“I’m an achiever, and I miss so much working with kids — this gives me a little bit of satisfaction that I’m completing something,” Sherline said. “They are supposed to help your brain but I see no evidence of that.”
A friend started her on puzzles when they were traveling in Europe, and she was hooked. Back home, at first she worked on the dining room table but soon moved into the kitchen for better light. And she only puzzles when it is daylight.
“If I hadn’t been a teacher I would’ve liked to have been a detective,” Sherline said. “I think of all these puzzles like detective work — looking for clues, putting things together, and it all ends up being OK.”
The picture is important to her, and she enjoyed a series of bedtime story puzzles. Her current favorites are by Charles Wysocki, an American painter who created scenes from the horse and buggy era.
“He always has a U.S. flag in them and horses,” Sherline said. “I’m an equestrian from way back, and I will do them twice.”
Friends have presented her with puzzles that are all-white or all-black.
“I say, ‘I thought you cared about me,'” she said. “I don’t want to do that kind. I did one — it was mostly all black with a little bit of blur of cat — and I’m surprised I finished it.”
Sherline’s daughter Melinda, who lives in Portland, sent her Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” saying she needed a challenge. But she completed it quickly and sent back a photo. Her son Rob lives in Lafayette, and when he stops by she insists he fit together a couple of pieces before leaving.
Robert, her husband of 57 years, sometimes will linger by the table and make a few matches if she asks, but he is more interested in playing golf, Sherline said.
Her most faithful helper is Lucy, her little 3-month-old rescue dog, who is usually by her side, trying to sneak a piece to nibble.
Sherline shops for puzzles at Barnes & Noble, Target, Hallmark, on Amazon, plus people buy them for her.
“I get kind of panicked if I don’t have a puzzle ready to go,” she said. “But it’s hard to find puzzles I haven’t done already.”
Then she has to figure out what to do with her completed puzzles. She framed an especially difficult one — a tall brown bear with butterflies flitting about his head — but gave it away. Before she breaks them up, Robert takes photos, which she keeps in an album.
Sherline tries to find other enthusiasts to enjoy her puzzles, and she has dropped some off at the Senior Center. Unless Lucy has chewed on the pieces.
“I can’t give those away,” she said.
Oh, and just because Sherline has reached her goal of 777 doesn’t mean she’s stopped.
“It keeps me entertained,” she said, “and now everyone is saying, ‘Make it 1,000.'”
Editor’s note: Dolores Fox Ciardelli is Tri-Valley Life editor for the Pleasanton Weekly. Her column, “Valley Views,” appears on the second and fourth Fridays of each month.
