Press Release

Release Date: February 19, 2010
HRCHC Contact: Communications Department
Telephone: (207) 861-3466
Email: Communications@HealthReach.org

"Dynamic Duo" retiring from Lovejoy Health Center

By Danielle O’Rourke-Suchoff

If you head over to the Lovejoy Health Center in Albion, what sounds might you hear coming from the staff? “We laugh a lot here,” says Judy Archer, a medical records clerk at Lovejoy. “I think that when patients come in and hear laughing, it makes them happy,” adds her fellow medical records clerk, Sherrill Smiley.

Sherrill and Judy, who have worked together at Lovejoy for ten years, are retiring this month. Lois Bouchard, the practice manager at Lovejoy says that these two women will be missed. “They are a couple of characters,” and each has “a wonderful sense of humor,” she says of the duo that always sits together during the Thursday staff meetings.

It is due, in part, to these regular staff meetings that both Sherrill and Judy love working at the health center. “There is no place like it” says Sherrill, as she describes the open lines of communications, facilitated by the meetings, between all of the staff. “Everyone listens to everyone,” adds Judy.

Having a friend to work with is important too. “You have to like the people you work with” states Sherrill. And it is clear that Sherrill and Judy like that they work together. They like to read the same books, and, says Judy “We talk about our families, or if one of us is having a bad time we can talk.”

Another reason that Sherrill and Judy like their work is because they get to do a little bit of everything. In addition to scanning and pulling the hefty family medical charts, they will always help out, assisting the nurses, keeping an eye on children during their parents’ physicals, and doing whatever is needed to make everything run smoothly.

Even though their job does not regularly involve meeting patients, Sherrill and Judy impact the lives of patients who come to the Lovejoy Health Center. They have made quilts for sick patients, quilts to be raffled off to support a family in need, and currently are finding out what they can do for soldiers in Iraq, especially because some employees at the health center have loved ones serving there.

Both women plan to remain active when they retire. Sherrill has twelve grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Currently, she gets up at 3 AM so that she can be done with work in time to pick some of them up from school. “I won’t have to go to work in the dark” she says with a smile when she describes her future retired life.

Judy, whose husband is also retired, will be happy to spend more time outside. “Sometimes you think ‘what a good day to go kayaking’ but then you have to go to work,” she says as she goes on to describe her other plans to cross-country ski and snowshoe more often in the future.

Though Judy and Sherrill will miss being a regular part of the family at Lovejoy, both are sure that the laughter in Albion will continue.