Local woman still helping others after 80 years

Published 2:00 pm Monday, July 18, 2016

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — In 80 years of living in middle Georgia, Mamie Edwards has seen more of this area and its history than most.

Originally from Hancock County, the former Central State Hospital patient supervisor and current certified nursing assistant at Primecare Home Care Services has spent most of her adult life in the pursuit of helping others in need, seeing the area through the eyes of the old, the sick, and the less fortunate. This wealth of life experience gives her a unique perspective on her community and the people that inhabit it, and shines through in the form of a warmness and positivity that spreads infectiously to the people around her.

“Mamie is definitely one of, if not our best employee,” said Mark Bush, director of operations for Primecare’s Milledgeville location. “Her clients adore her; they literally adopt her. One of our clients said once that she does more in two hours than most people do all day.”

Edwards has never been one to just sit around.

“I’ve always been the type that likes to move around and do things,” she said, from the home of one of her patients. “I don’t like to sit around. I don’t know what I’m gonna do when I get to where I can’t do nothing.”

Even after eight decades, Edwards is not one to sit down and relax. In her work at Primecare, she calls on elderly and sick patients in their homes and carries out just about any task they may need. This includes nearly every job from making sure her clients are comfortable and well-fed to deep-cleaning floors and toilets, all of which she does happily and with a vigor that surpasses people many years her junior. Indeed, many of her clients are surprised and even shocked to learn that she is in fact older than they are, and her cheerfulness and rock-solid work ethic show no signs of slowing down.

“I worked over there with a patient, and he was like 51. We were talking one day and he asked me how old I was, and at the time I was 79, so I told him. He said ‘What? Quit lying!’ I said ‘I ain’t lying!’

Her continued drive to work multiple days a week at her age can be traced back to her youth. In her childhood Edwards worked long days on the never-ending cycle of tasks of her parent’s farm, an experience that influences her to this day.

“I always have worked, all my life. I used to work in the field — pick cotton, chop cotton, hold cotton — you name it I did it. When I married, I said I was not gonna marry a farmer, but I wound up marrying a farmer… I reckon that’s where it comes from: I worked so hard when I was young, so I’m used to working, and I used to work, work, work. I don’t feel right if I ain’t doing something,” she said.

The hard work didn’t end after Edwards left the farm, however. As a young woman she worked at a garment business in Sparta, where work was long, fast-paced, and stressful. When her doctor said her blood pressure was through the roof from the constant stress, she quit her job there and applied as a nurse’s assistant at Central State Hospital. In her 30 years there, Edwards worked her way up to being the supervisor of a floor of clients.

With all of the hard work Edwards has been through in her life, it’s no wonder she approaches being a nursing assistant so eagerly. For Edwards, the work isn’t about the money, but rather to fulfill her insatiable need to improve the lives of those around her, and she has no plans of retiring any time soon.

“I hope I don’t ever get sick,” Edwards said. “I just love to be around people. To feel like I know that I’m helping them … I love that.”