EXETER — For the past 23 years, Jim Kaplan has been one of the hardest-working employees in Exeter Hospital’s cafeteria.
The 52-year-old arrives for a shift from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. five days a week, during which he clears and washes dishes. He can be a man of few words with strangers, but everyone at the hospital knows him.
“Whenever I’m at Exeter Hospital and see any doctor there, they always know Jim from the cafeteria,” his sister Lisa Press said. “My father joked once that more people know Jimmy than the CEO.”
When Jim was born with Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder characterized by mild-to-moderate intellectual disability, his mother Sue was determined to help him live as independently as possible. At the time, there were no schools for children with disabilities and she placed an ad in the Exeter News-Letter seeking other parents of children with challenges. Maureen Barrows, Jane McFarland, Mildred Wool and Sue Dillenbeck answered her call.