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HARMAN-- A Harman School teacher's aide recently retired after working for the Randolph County Board of Education for 49 years.
Merry Lou Vance began her career as a teacher's aide in August of 1970, shortly after graduating from high school.
"I began work at 18," Vance said in a recent interview, stating she was merely looking for employment at the time but soon grew to love her job.
"When I first began to work, I had five second-grade classes and five teachers that I worked under. I would go from class to class and maybe just grade papers or listen to slow readers. A few years into the program, they had us learn to be tutors. Each one of us would have 15 children a day for a set amount of time. They would come and read to me during that time," Vance said. She also worked in TMI and EMI classrooms at points in her career.
Vance believes that the most valuable things she learned throughout her career came from the people she met along the way.
"You learn so many things from people that you work with. I worked with numerous teachers and aides, and they taught me so many things when I first started," said Vance. She initially began working at Elkins Central School as one of 10 aides.
"I loved the people that I worked with, and that made it all enjoyable," she said. "They were so helpful and good to me.
"We didn't fight and bicker. We just got along and helped each other. It was so nice. I always tried to be a good helper to my teachers and to do what they asked of me."
Additionally, Vance credits working with the children as a rewarding aspect of her job.
"Laughing with the children was always fun. They always have so many things to share with you. It's very pleasurable," she said. "Sometimes we would just laugh and laugh at some of the stories they would come up with."
Vance has worked in six different schools and under 14 principles.
One of the things that Vance valued the most during her career was the amount of time she got to spend with her family.
"With the job that I had, I was able to spend summers with my children. That was one of the things that I loved about the job because I could to home with the three of them," she said.
"That was the special thing about working in the school system; that was valuable time, getting to spend more time with your family. I really enjoyed that."
Vance was thankful to end up working at Harman School, which was close to her home.
"Initially, it was only a part-time position because kindergarten only lasted for half a day. It became a full-time position in the 90s, and that's when I got to go back home."
She credits her work for filling a void in her life.
"When I lost my mother in 2015, school filled a void in my life. Unless I was gone, I would see mother every day, and I would go be with her when school ended. So, school helped to fill that void after losing her."
A dedicated grandmother, Vance hopes to spend more time with her grandchildren during her retirement. She is excited to travel to Hawaii with her family.
"There will be parts of working that I really miss, but I won't know how much I miss it until school starts in the fall," said Vance.
"I found this motto when I first went to work and always tried to follow it, 'Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the people you can, at all the times you can, for ever so long as you can.' That was kind of my motto -- that I wanted to help people, and I still want to help people. I still want to be a blessing to somebody."