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Merle Smith: Aging With Attitude
Merle was never one for sitting. She has been employed as a babysitter, beautician, housekeeper, cocktail waitress, operating room supply technician, ammunition inspector during the Vietnam war, and engineering specialist. Her first job after leaving Bell South was at Dillard's department store as a beauty advisor. "I really loved giving beauty consultations to women with skin and makeup problems. I also enjoyed reaching the rigorous sales goals." Weekend work was less appealing, so she moved on to a night shift at Federal Express. Merle attended classes to learn how to operate the ground support equipment and became a member of the safety team. At age 57, this was "a strenuous work-out every night." While working at Fedex, Merle began to attend a Leadership For An Independent Future (LIFE) class, an empowerment program for seniors created by Senior Leaders, Inc. The Memphis, Tennessee-based organization sponsors a variety of programs designed to help people deal with the issues of aging. Their mission is to empower seniors to remain independent and to become leaders in the community. "I felt I was already empowered because of my previous involvement in many community organizations as a leader." LIFE classes "increased my knowledge of how to face the challenges of aging without growing old and becoming bored and isolated." The LIFE program, with about 700 graduates in Memphis and Shelby County, has expanded to Savannah, Georgia, and Philadelphia. The program draws seniors from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Most are concerned with the challenges of aging, their spiritual lives, good physical and mental health, and having the love and support of family. "It was amazing to see how much my classmates and I had in common,"Merle says. Senior Leaders, Inc. had other plans for Merle: she was asked to become a LIFE trainer. Upon graduation from the Train the Trainer Institute, Merle began teaching a LIFE class. She enjoyed "seeing the transformation of the students as they attend class once a week. Sometimes a participant and a parent will enroll in class together. Usually the parent has suffered something that has caused them to become more dependent on the family--or the parent has become anti-social due to the loss of a spouse. The son or daughter realizes the need to empower the parent to start living again. The only way they can motivate them to attend LIFE classes is to enroll also. It is amazing how we reverse roles between parent and child as we age." She was also fundraising for the organization, and active in the Senior Leader Improvisation Theatre Troupe, Age Stage. Currently, she serves as Public Relations Coordinator for Senior Leaders, Inc. "Finally I have found my niche." Although she draws inspiration from writers such as Dale Carnegie (How to Stop Worrying and Start Living), Catherine Ponder (The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity) and Charles Stanley (The Source of My Strength), Merle credits her mother, father, younger sister, and grandmother with instilling in her "a sense of responsibility for the choices I have made in life. I've always tried to surround myself with people who are doing something to improve the world." Merle and her husband Cleo, a retired chemistry teacher with a small janitorial business, share the responsibility of caring for his ninety-eight year old mother, who recently broke her leg, and looking out for their adopted mentally challenged son. They have thirteen grandchildren. "Later in life, I've learned that attitude governs ninety-nine percent of our lives," she says. "To other seniors, I want to say, age with attitude. Watch out world, here I come." Getting Started Senior Leaders, Inc. 2670 Union Avenue Ext., Suite
400 Memphis, TN 38112 Copyright 2006 2Young2Retire.com, All Rights Reserved
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At the end of her twenty-six
year career with Bell South Communications in Memphis, Tennessee, Merle Smith
"mastered climbing telephone poles and learned how to maintain telephone service like
the big guys" at the age of 55. "That job was one of my proudest achievements at
Bell South. You know what they say -- if you can't hang with the big dogs, then you can
just sit on the porch."