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Graduate, 67, taught self a lesson
By THOMAS C. TOBIN © St. Petersburg Times, published August 24, 2000
She was wrong. Six months into retirement, Mrs. Baker needed a job again. But, recalling the ageism she had experienced in the past, insecurity set in. She remembered all the late-career comments from younger workers trying to be funny, the quips about "the old lady" in the office. "She just thought nobody in their right mind is going to hire a 66-year-old person," said her daughter, Holly Tsanakaliotis, 32. "I thought people my age are retiring and I'm just starting out," Mrs. Baker said. After some prodding from Tsanakaliotis, however, Mrs. Baker sought work at the Pinellas County Jail, where her daughter is a detention deputy for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. The process brought hope but also unearthed a secret Mrs. Baker had buried for years: She had no high school diploma. The Sheriff's Office would not hire her without one. Mrs. Baker almost gave up again, until her daughter prodded her into taking the high school equivalency exam, known as the General Education Development, or GED, test. After six months of night classes at Clearwater High School, Mrs. Baker passed the test and 10 months ago became a switchboard operator at the jail -- a job that offers retirement benefits after six years. "This is the first time, starting at 67 years old, that I'm working toward retirement," said Mrs. Baker, who turns 68 in October. "I'm proud of me." But tonight at Ruth Eckerd Hall, as Pinellas school officials formally confer GED certificates, Mrs. Baker and her daughter will revel in something more gratifying than the piece of paper she'll receive. They said they will celebrate Mrs. Baker's triumph over insecurity. Monday afternoon in her Dunedin home, when Mrs. Baker tried on her black and white cap and gown for the first time, mother and daughter cried. More than five decades ago, Mrs. Baker attended high school in Baltimore but left in the 11th grade after landing a job teaching swimming and physical education at a local YMCA. "I thought this is what I wanted to do the rest of my life," she said. The job lasted only six months; then she went into sales. Time slipped by and she never returned to high school, "and the lie got bigger and bigger," she said. She figured she didn't need a diploma, but an unpleasant feeling stuck with her. Over time, she grew to be ashamed. "I always put on a big front," she said. Years later, when her daughter entertained notions of dropping out of Dunedin High School, Mrs. Baker begged her not to follow her example. The former Holly Baker graduated. After Mrs. Baker's shortened retirement, when it became clear she needed more income, she resolved to try to do better than a low-wage, entry-level position. "I wanted a job with the public and I wanted a job I could be proud of," she said. Still, she battled an inner voice that said she was too old to work again and too old to return to school. With her daughter's encouragement, she enrolled in the Pinellas school district's GED program, but some of the classes were "extremely hard," she said. "I tried helping her with some of that work," Tsanakaliotis said, "but I couldn't do it. I had no idea what they were talking about." Mrs. Baker said the math sections came easily because she had worked with numbers for years as an assistant hospital administrator and as an office manager for various doctors and chiropractors. Much harder were the classes in geography and history, she said. Today, she's in a job she loves. "I love to go to work in the morning," Mrs. Baker said. "I don't want to sit down and play bridge, go shopping and drink tea. . . . Every day is new. There is no boredom at all in the jail." Her daughter said she never understood why Mrs. Baker used age as an excuse because, she said, she never acted old. "For her to go ahead and finally do it, I can't be any prouder," Tsanakaliotis said. "My husband says most people her age are putting together their funeral arrangements. My mother's putting together her resume."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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