In nine decades of life, Doris Myers has faced serious economic hardship, a workforce and society that favored men over women, the death of her husband, and even cancer and surgery.
For this nonagenarian, survival alone isn’t enough.
One of her true passions, poetry, takes over a good amount of her limited free time. Original works – some hand-written, others typed and printed – are either bound in decorative books or left scattered on various tables to wait for their lifetime in publication. (Click here to read some of her poetry.)
Another passion, art, is evidenced by a quick glance around her home. Paintings and sketches bear her signature in a bottom corner. A changing last name in the same handwriting shows the length of time spent pursuing this calling.
Free time is limited because of what consumes Doris’ days: her work schedule. As she approaches her 93rd birthday this fall, Doris continues to manage dozens of properties in the area, renting to students and professionals through Special Dwellings. It’s not that she doesn’t want to retire – unlike a certain college football coach, she knows exactly what she would do in retirement – it’s that she needs to keep working.
“I guess I’m a fighter.”
Doris the Fighter
As a young girl, Myers observed her mother – “a sweet, kind and good” woman – allow others to walk over her and take advantage of her good nature. It was at that young age that she decided, “People will never do that to me.” She holds that mentality to this day.
Her father, who was of a time when male chauvinism was accepted and women were considered second-class citizens, also caused her to become a fighter. She approached him when she was 20 years old to announce her engagement to her high school sweetheart. “Are you asking me [for permission] or telling me?” he asked. His attitude inspired her not to acquiesce to him or others.
She remained married to Martin Henry Myers for 25 years, until he took his own life. Though a note he left included little more than his life insurance information, Doris believed financial straits contributed to his emotional distress. He had heavily invested in properties that failed, and he was deeply in debt.
“He was a kind, loving human being,” she said. “He never would have wanted to hurt us.”
He left a number of small life insurance policies, though all but one went to creditors. The remaining claim was used to move to a new home. (The family’s home was to be sold in a Sheriff’s Sale because of debt.)
She then entered the workaday world armed with an insurance broker’s license and, later, a realtor’s license.
In the workforce, she faced many issues simply by being a woman. Smaller paychecks, harassment from male bosses and equals, and unrequited sexual advances were typical in her early days as a license insurance broker and realtor.
“You’re a woman, and this job is too much for a woman,” she was told before one demotion. As a response, she filed a discrimination suit against the company, settled out of court, and moved to State College with the money she earned.
Even in the place called Happy Valley, the challenges continued to appear for the aging fighter. At age 89, she underwent surgery for non-smoker’s lung cancer. Just two years later, it reappeared, but she was told surgery was not an option. A firm believer in taking care of one’s self, she sought other options.
She discovered online a new procedure – radiofrequency ablation – that seemed ideal. The Mayo Clinic told her the procedure was ineffective for patients with non-smoker’s lung cancer, but the radiologist she spoke to connected her with a surgeon who believed he could handle the surgery. In May of 2009, the surgeon removed the cancerous lobe on her left lung.
Still, getting around is a challenge for the wheelchair-bound Doris, who turns down offers of assistance when getting in or out of the wheelchair. “I can’t do what I used to do. When you’re like this, it’s frustrating,” she said.
Doris has had to fight her whole life, but there’s still plenty of fight left in her.
“If you are down, really all the way down, where can you go?” she said. “Up. It’s the only place. Even if you climb, you gotta go up.”
Doris the Worker
At an age several decades short of 92, many people expect themselves to spend their afternoons fishing, watching TV or simply putting their feet up. Doris manages 40 properties in the area.
She’s a workaholic by definition, she says. That’s been the case her whole life, and she has no plans of slowing down now.
From cleaning bathrooms to painting ties and scarves to managing insurance operations to overseeing dozens of properties, Doris has worn many hats in her lifetime, and it’s a lesson she’s proud to have passed onto her children.
She smiles as she thinks back on their first jobs and the money they saved for themselves. She would provide for their necessities, of course, but luxuries had to be purchased with money they earned.
These days, she couldn’t be prouder of their combined work ethic. All three sons work together to run the State College-based AccuWeather Inc. Joel is founder, chairman and president; Barry is chief executive officer; Evan is chief operating officer.
She’s also proud of her own work history. At Gimbel’s in Philadelphia, she painted a forklift on a man’s tie without having actually seen a forklift before. She earned various promotions in the insurance and real estate industries when women rarely held similar positions.
She doesn’t miss a beat with her current properties, either. She excuses herself from an interview to answer a phone call. A student renter is looking to sublet his apartment for the summer. Without hesitation, she runs down a detailed list of required steps and fees, not once stopping to check any forms. One has to wonder how far off the caller would be if he had to guess her age from that interaction.
Doris the Artist
In a home that doubles as an office, there’s no question as to Doris’ passion: her art. For lunch, she sits at the head of a dining room table, a wall of her work (and some other pieces) standing as a backdrop behind her.
Around the room and down the hall is more evidence. There’s a massive triptych painting of the Holocaust covering the wall of a workroom and a detailed acrylic painting of a lamp hanging in the dining room.
The workroom, a limited space to begin with, is packed wall to wall with art, poetry and crowded desk with a small lamp used to illuminate the current project: a scrapbook for her granddaughter’s upcoming bat mitzvah.
Her office contains several books of poems she’s written over the years. Some are hand-written; others have been typed on the computer. A good deal of them feature hand-drawn background sketches and paintings. She looks over one as she explains the process: “First I think about the feeling, and then I try to start the rhyme. That’s the hard part.”
(Click here to read some of her poetry.)
Doris the Survivor
Doris Myers has found a great deal of success against difficult odds throughout the last nine decades, and she continues to celebrate those victories through her work, art and poetry.
A fighter, poet, artist, businesswoman, and matriarch, Doris has seen life transform many ways. She describes it in a poem as “a patch-work quilt.”
And though the poem was written in 2006, the quilt is one piece of art this artist hasn’t yet completed.
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My life is a patch-work quilt.
It is made of many hues.
Some, I had the privilege of choosing,
While others were there for the blending.
Each piece fitted, as they came.
Some large, others small.
Many different from one another.
Each one joined together into one large whole.
The dark and light patches completing each other.
Blocks, oblongs, triangles, side by side,
fitted together as they came.
To be joined by the thread of my life.
Now it is reaching completion.
I can look upon it and see its colors.
Some bright and blinding.
Many soft and warm,
Others cold and dark,
Yet fitting neatly to make the whole cover.
Not too long, and it will be done.
I can put away the thread,
And fold it over.
It shall be one totally completed work
(Doris Myers is the grandmother of StateCollege.com founder and publisher Dan Myers, who says he is very proud of her accomplishments.)
