Windsor Manor celebrates sisters who worked for 50 and 48 years

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It's a milestone enough for one person to work 50 years in one place.

But it's something different altogether when two people - sisters, in fact - to have done so.

Virginia Pugh Way and Mary Pugh retired Friday from Windsor Manor Nursing Facility after 50 and 48 years of work, respectively.

Pugh Way began working at the home after school and during weekends. She was just a young girl and washed dishes for the residents. She moved up to take on the role as the head cook for evening dinner before working - for the past 30 years or so, she said - as a dietary supervisor for the patients.

Pugh worked at the home for a year after school and then took a break, returning as a certified nursing assistant and serving for nearly five decades.

"We just worked good together," Pugh said, noting she and her sister have worked in several departments with one another. "I just love it. Being here for so long, one of the reasons was I just loved my patients."

She said one of the most memorable occasions she and her sister shared included Hurricane Hugo.

"We came to the nursing home and the two of us took care of the patients until additional help could arrive," she said. They spent so much time working at the home that they bought a home right across the street. Pugh still lives there today.

"Their mother, my grandmother, Viola Spann Pugh; their brother, Nathaniel Pugh; and their sister, Margaree Pugh Simon, all worked together here at one time or another," said Latasha Simon Miller, Pugh Way's niece. "So, it was a family affair."

Jannett Conyers worked with the pair for 43 years herself.

"Be proud of the work that you do; do the best that you can," she said. "It's a big family, and I've learned all that from working with them for more than 40 years."

Having worked with the sisters since 1974, she said she'd miss seeing their smiling faces most.

"We're still friends outside of work, but I'll miss seeing them and greeting them in the morning," she said. "I just want them to enjoy their retirement. I want them to go and do what they wanted to do and have planned to do but have never been able to do."

Conyers said she had this quote for the sisters: "Goodbye, tension; hello, pension."

Administrator Johnnie Gilley presented both retirees with watches engraved "Windsor 50" and "Windsor 48." The pair also received gifts from their families.

Clarendon County Council Chairman Dwight Stewart, whose 91-year-old mother lives in a nursing facility outside of the county, said he has always appreciated the care that folks like Pugh Way and Way give to such patients.

"You can't do it unless you have a heart for it," he said. "Thank you for what you have done. Good luck and best wishes in retirement."

CEO Robin Matthews said she was ecstatic for the pair.

"A total of 98 years here, I think they got off the school bus and came to work," she said. "They've seen a lot of changes here. This was in 1967 and 1969. They've been here longer than some people have been married, longer than some people have been living. Your dedication to our facility has been a blessing."

Matthews said the home could not begin to count the number of lives the sisters touched.

"That's not just the residents you took care of, Mary providing nursing care and Virginia providing meal service," she said. "When you started, there was no such thing as regulations. You came to work and did whatever job you had to do. Everyone pitched in. You cooked, you mopped, you gave medicine, you gave therapy. Throughout all the changes, you've stayed here and committed yourselves to making the lives of our residents better. We could never bring two replacements in to take your place. You mean the world to us."

Gilley quoted from Psalm 92:12:14, which says, "The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green."

"Your days are not done," Gilley said. "God is not done with you yet. Continue to be active in offering support to others. These verses tell us that if you live for the Lord, there are blessings in all things. Retirement is not an ending; it is just the beginning of God's blessings."