79-year-old woman still learning, painting pictures

Petite and delicate, with face-framing soft curls and a stylishly coordinated outfit, Doris Maher is easy to picture as a lady who frequents tea parties and fills her afternoons with good friends and bridge games.

But Doris doesn’t have much time for such things. What with working 24 hours a week, doing minor home repairs, painting pictures suitable for a gallery and attending adult education classes – she just finished Spanish II – Doris has her hands full. Her boundless energy belies her 79 years.

“I think you just have to keep active, you can’t just sit around. I know that’s what keeps me young,” said Doris, in a matter-of-fact tone. “I reached a point where I’d try everything just to see if I could do it. If I found out I couldn’t do it, well, by then it was too late. I’d be halfway through so I’d have to finish.”

Such was the case with “sponge painting” the living room walls and painting or actually replacing several floors.

Doris’ husband Lawrence used to take care of such things but when he died, he passed the torch to her. And she took it willingly, diving right in.

After all, this house in Glenburn has special meaning. Doris (Alexander) was born here. Still, because many repairs were needed and she had two small daughters, Doris was a little reluctant to move home after her father died. But Lawrence, a wood craftsman, thought the wood lot out back was perfect.

Looking back, it was. And as for repairs, well, Doris has that covered now.

“My motto is that if I can do it, I’m not going to pay someone else to do it,” she said. That includes getting her own wood in the winter.

“I used the tractor last year to get my wood,” she said. “I loaded the bucket, and brought it in. You have to fill your arms and bring the wood in the house, so that keeps your muscles strong and the joints working.”

Currently, the younger of her two daughters, Kathy, 46, and coon cat, Mishka, live with her. Doris and Kathy also work together at Sam’s Club.

“You can’t afford to retire today, and it’s hard to find a job when you’re older,” she said. “Kathy suggested I apply at Sam’s and they hired me. They’re nice people.”

Doris works as a product demonstrator and no doubt spends her days charming her potential customers.

“I like meeting the people, and I really enjoy it when they pick up what I’m selling, and go off with it, because that’s job security,” she said with a laugh. “And I have my regulars, especially one man who always scowls and growls at me the whole time we are talking. He doesn’t mean a word of it and I just growl right back at him. I think he looks forward to seeing me as much as I look forward to seeing him.”

But then, she is used to men who kid around. When she told her husband she was going to take art lessons, he laughed.

“But I took the classes anyway, and then when I finished my first painting, he was more proud of it than I was,” she said. “He showed it to everyone.”

Lawrence didn’t corner the market on pride. Kathy bought her talented mother a scroll saw “for craft making.”

But even with all these activities, time spent with friends and family, especially meeting them for breakfast, is one of Doris’s favorite things to do.

“I don’t care about the rest of the meals, but I love going out for breakfast,” she said. “For fun, I eat.”

A woman truly after my own heart.

Carol Higgins is communications director at Eastern Agency on Aging. For information on EAA, call 941-2865 or log on www.eaaa.org.