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Andalusia Adult Activity Center Assistant Director of Nutrition Myra Page set goals for her job and feels accomplished after a 22-year career taking care of the public with meals.

Her coworkers held a reception to honor her, and City officials recognized Page with a proclamation Tuesday, March 29. Her last day at the center was Wednesday, March 30.

“I will miss my people, my seniors because they were my life. These last 22 years have gone by so quickly, and now it’s time for me to start a new adventure. Although I’ll miss the day-to-day setup, knowing each of my seniors has been my biggest joy. It was my goal to see everybody love each other. It has been a rewarding career, and we became one big family as a result,” Page said.

When she first started in 2000, she said they were at the old American Legion building. They moved to the current building in 2003, where she worked up until her final day.

“It’s been blood, sweat, and tears to have a number one center in our area. With all of the help from everyone else, we made it. I have really enjoyed working with the seniors and seeing them laugh, playing games, and just the little things we did for them through the years. It was a blessing to see them have a good time at the center, where they were great company and enjoyed life. That was the joy of the job for me.”

Page was responsible for all the meals through the nutrition department of the adult activity center. “From people getting their meals, picking up carry-out meals, I had to keep our numbers up. I also had to be sure the inside meals were at the right temperature and dispersed every day to our seniors.”

She had many people to thank for supporting her 22-year tenure.

“I would like to thank Dwight Mikel for hiring me and having the faith in me to do the job. Thank you to my first supervisor, Diane Jones, and current director Sonja Godwin, for your help. Mayor Earl Johnson and the City, thank you for your support. I certainly appreciate our meal drivers, who were one of the more important parts of our meal system. You all saw that each person got their meal, and sometimes, I was out there with them. I did the routes for a while before we found someone permanent. It is a dedicated job, and if you don’t love the seniors, you can’t love this job.”

One of Page’s goals was to have a nice, relaxing area for the seniors behind the center. “Thank you to Andy Wiggins for allowing me to have our love garden after we first moved over here. It was a dream of mine from day one and came to pass. Although it’s not yet complete, the seniors are able to go sit outside and enjoy nature. Jared Boutwell was great to help keep up with our love garden and worked on it for us. Thanks to all who had a part in making it a pretty place for our seniors.”

When asked about retirement plans, she kept it simple. “I am going to take it one day at the time. My husband and I bought a travel traveler, and we hope to do some camping.”

Page knew this was now the time to retire and said so much has changed since she first started. “All the rules and regulations have changed, our meals have changed, and every day, something new comes up. We changed kitchens, but our food vendor was good to work with. We helped them when we could and worked around all the changes. Whatever came up for us, we dealt with and took care of it.”

She is married to her husband Grady Page of 59 years with one son, Ricky (Tammy) Page and one grandson, Cameron Page. She also has a Cocker Spaniel named Charlie Brown she loves.

“Thank you to everyone for your love and support and the precious memories. Please continue to support the center and staff as they keep it growing. I encourage you to come to a place for seniors to meet and have fun,” she said.

The Andalusia Adult Activity Center is located at 401 Walker Avenue in downtown Andalusia near the Ballet. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call the office at 334-222-6891.

“It’s not easy to lose a great employee even if the reason is a well-deserved retirement. Myra has always been on time and was usually the first one in and very dependable. You can tell she grew up old school, and while we will fill her position, she will leave a void in her work family that will be hard to fill. She has promised to come back and visit often. I really appreciate her years of dedication to the seniors and her job. Years ago, when I was still working at Johnson Park, she came in with a small 10 inch fully decorated Christmas tree and gave it to me. Now, it is the first decoration I put out every year. What was so special is she thought of me, and it was something I was not expecting. If you know Myra, you have probably been a recipient of her thoughtfulness. Our seniors and staff will miss her smile, kindness, and thoughtfulness the most, but her talent will be missed as well. It has been an honor to work alongside her,” said Adult Activity Center Program Coordinator Sonja Godwin.