Eleanor Smith

Updated April 2025

I married before graduating with my B.A. I didn’t realize what being married to one’s career really meant, but my husband made that clear to me over time. Realizing that I would never be allowed to use my degree, never mind fulfill my own potential, I ended it. My son Matt and I have grown apart over time, in part because of that divorce.

I think I’ve had about 5 careers. Before Matt was born, I was a daycare center teacher in Minneapolis. Later came San Francisco and a buying position in the garment industry. I was there for 6 years and back then it was a fabulous and beautiful city. The hippies had gone, but free concerts in Golden Gate Park were still common. Then it was back to Sharon after my mom couldn’t deal very well with my dad’s death. I started at the bottom rung with Filenes, did not go the ‘buyer’ root where everyone screams at each other, was a department manager at the Peabody mall, and eventually graduated to a store management position in Natick with a company called Stacy’s. I made good friends, and I keep in touch with a couple. Night school got me my MBA from BU, and a ticket out of retail. I took what I thought would be a short term position at Mass Bay Community College, but I fell in love with teaching and reached a full professorship after 14 years.

At the same time I married again and built an antique clock business with my husband. I left teaching to work full time for Lee, paying myself a pittance so that we could plow any profits back into the business. When the marriage fell apart, I was 58 and left with nothing to my name except a car and his life insurance policy. I sold that policy, went back to school, became certified as a professional medical records coder, eventually moved to Maine for a job with Maine Medical Center, bought a house in Brunswick (due to a grand divorce settlement), worked from home until my eyes couldn’t stand the monitor's glare any longer, and met up with Andy Powell who came to live with me after he retired.

So now, after selling our wonderful little home on the New Meadows River, we've moved to a small town in Lancaster County, PA. We are members of an independent living community on a campus of 1400 acres which also houses a medical center affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. So when memory and bodies fail, we’ll be here for the long haul. Well, I hope the haul isn’t very long, but I am glad to say I will never move again. As you all know, getting old isn’t a walk in the park. But here, we did not have to search for a PCP. We try to stay fit by going to a wonderful ‘wellness center’ on campus at least three times a week, walk the many trails here when the weather is right, and enjoy the winters which are milder than in New England. It’s the first of April now and the flowering trees are in bloom. While I still can drive, I love traveling all the back roads through the farms. No frost heaves and blistered pavement here. Just have to watch out for the Amish horse carriages.

We are both looking forward to seeing old friends in September. I do hope that many can make the trip!

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Updated June 2011...

Only Susie Lillard Hale, Maryanne Lillard, Jeff Aronson, Linda Finer, and Andy Powell (class of 64) know that I moved to Maine for work and eventual retirement in 2008. But here I am, on my 6th career and my last adventure toward Medicare coverage (I can only hope) and happy as a clam. I live on a river to Casco Bay in Brunswick and spent last year, before buying my home, in Portland. Winters are harsh but no where near as scary as the ones I spent in Minnesota during the ealy 70s. My son, Matt, lives in San Francisco and will never leave, barring an earthquake that is so totally destructive that he must escape via a sea-kayak or sailing boat (which he tells me he's 'saving for' ??). But I see him, either there or here, every other year and we talk weekly. I don't hope anymore for grandchildren.

I am single, but Andy comes up every other weekend to visit and partake of Maine's beauty.

We both explore its bays and inlets and he feels as tho he is on vacation while here. I couldn't be more content. My house is only 1000 sq foot, so how could I be expected to share? Was this a premeditated purchase???

I was lucky enough to train in health-care after my divorce, and so I don't have fearfullness about the future. I only fret about how long Medicare is going to survive! I will work until I can't. THIS is the survival-call of our generation/class of '65 -- working until we can't any longer, if we are lucky and healthy enough to do so.

I code medical records at Maine Medical Center in Portland and am so happy in this field. I can't be fired because the revenue stream starts with the coder. Job security at its finest! That is, until Obama Care becomes the law of the land, in which case I am a victim of any "unintended consequences" of that law.

And I don't have a clue as to what those consequences might be. So, time to retire might be the way I will look at life next year, or the year after.

I am, of course, the oldest in my department. But my younger co-workers have figured out that "old" doesn't necessarily mean 'dotty'. And so I can't complain about anything. I sometimes wish that I could simply look forward to 65 and Medicare with an "AMEN" and be done with the penny-pinching and budget-scraping that brought me here. I don't hold my breath. But I am so glad to be in New England with whatever four seasons brings me each year. And I look at the water every day...

Ellie