When 91-year-old Merle Phillips arrived for work, the client took one look at her, rushed to the phone and called the office: “I asked for a homemaker, not a little old lady,” she told Lutheran Social Services, which had arranged for Phillips to assist her.
After homemaker supervisor Penny Wilson convinced the caller that Phillips could do the job and do it well, the woman reluctantly handed Phillips a dustcloth.
With the energy of a windstorm, Phillips hustled about her work, and while she was on her knees dusting the coffee table, the client broke the ice.
“You amaze me,” she said.
The two talked; they connected. And when Phillips finished her tasks, the client gave her a hug and asked her to come back.
Phillips, who lives in Wheaton, has worked as a homemaker since being hired by Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) at a DuPage County Older Workers Job Fair held in March.
LSSI, which has a contract with the Illinois Department on Aging, has been providing homemaker services since 1978, in DuPage County since 1994, for adults age 60 and older who qualify to receive help in order to continue living on their own, said Dottie Cowan, program director of LSSI’s Older Adult Services DuPage County.
“Seniors want to stay in their own homes,” Cowan said. “Although this program is difficult to staff because of the low pay, it is such an important program because it allows seniors to remain in their homes as long as possible and prevents them from being prematurely admitted to a nursing home.”
To prepare them for a career as a home-care specialist, homemakers participate in 24 hours of pre-service training, during which they are educated in such topics as sensitivity and the natural process of aging. They are also involved in simulations of arthritis (which involve wrapping the joints) and confinement to a wheelchair.
Homemakers assist with a variety of household chores, including meal preparation, light housekeeping, laundry and personal grooming. Sometimes all a client wants is a friendly visitor, a role homemakers are glad to fill.
And Phillips does it all, either alone or as part of a team. What are her favorite tasks?
“I like to do anything,” Phillips said. “I think it’s all in your head that you don’t like to do this or that.”
In fact, Phillips is usually so engrossed in her work that it’s a chore for her to take a lunch break. “If I’m working, I don’t like to stop to eat because I just want to keep on working,” she said.
One might wonder how Phillips developed such a positive attitude. “I don’t know,” she said. “I guess that’s the way the Lord made me. As a kid, I always had to do whatever I was told, so I decided I might as well like it.”
And that’s the way she looks at life as well as her job as a homemaker. “I love it,” she said. “It’s very rewarding because I make people comfortable and happy.”
Phillips once worked for a client who was recovering from brain surgery, and there wasn’t much for her to do except to be a friendly visitor. The two women had a common interest in chemistry and enjoyed a stimulating conversation about the subject. The client’s husband told Phillips that her visit was the best therapy his wife could have had.
Grants from Chicago Community Trust, Retirement Research Foundation and DuPage Community Memorial Foundation enabled LSSI to purchase two vans that are used to transport homemakers from the LSSI office in Carol Stream to their job sites, Cowan said.
Many of LSSI’s homemakers are in their late 40s and 50s, a few in their 60s. And then there’s Phillips.
“Merle is an angel and an exception,” Wilson said.
“We should all hope to be Merle when we’re even half her age,” Cowan added. “I wish we could clone her. She has so much energy. Most people trudge along to the van, but Merle runs to it.”
According to Cowan, older workers are generally very dependable, have a strong work ethic and are caring people who do the work not for the money but for the satisfaction of helping others. “With an older homemaker like Merle, clients realize that she really can help them, and they also connect with her,” Cowan said.
In the beginning, Wilson asked Phillips how many hours a day she wanted to work. When she responded 8 to 11, Wilson thought three hours a day sounded reasonable for a 91-year-old. But that’s not what Phillips had in mind; she meant 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. She puts in 40 hours a week, making an average of $5.75 an hour.
That may sound incredible, but not when you consider that Phillips keeps a pretty busy schedule. On a recent day, she rose at 5 a.m. and retired after midnight.
“I’m like a kid; I can find a lot of things to do,” she said. “I want to keep busy. I think we were put here on this earth to do as much for the Lord as we can, and I try to do a little bit more every day.”
Phillips, a widow, is active in Wheaton Wesleyan Church, has many friends, does her own yard work and is building an outdoor shed. She was even wondering whether the Parkway Terrace Nursing Home in Wheaton would let her be a volunteer in her spare time, and she plans to give them a call.
Advice from Phillips as she picks up her cloth tote bag stuffed with lunch, time sheets and a supply of candy in a round tin, ready to start her day: “You should enjoy growing old.”
