- Linda Kemp, 84, works part-time at her son's Florida law firm to support herself.
- Kemp lives below the poverty line and relies on Social Security and her son's help.
- Kemp said she's getting adjusted to her new community after recently moving closer to her son.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Linda Kemp, 84, who mails letters at her son's law firm in Florida. Kemp said the work helps her stay current on her bills, and she is grateful to her son for the opportunity to hold a job. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Most of my life I've been a caregiver to my children. I've had seven children, and they're now all over the planet. I have one in Australia, three in California, one in Hawaii, one in Ohio, and one here in Florida. My first marriage, I had four children, and the second marriage — which was only a common law marriage — I had three.
With my second husband, we built a house. When we split up, I freaked out a little.
My husband paid all the bills and gave me money to do the grocery shopping. I wasn't the main breadwinner, and I wasn't bringing in any money aside from selling some art that I made, which doesn't add up to enough to raise my children. We didn't live in luxury, but we were able to live comfortably. When he left, he gave the house to me.
I managed to buy a house with the money I got from the house we built, but it was too big. I invested and reinvested in property, and each time I did that, I made more money. It helped me keep going once the kids had grown up. Today, they call it flipping. I managed to live comfortably, and I don't care about gold or fancy clothes.
I designed a small, one-story house just for me. When I got older, I had four solar panels installed.
I never ran after money
People always have arguments over money. It's the downfall of man. Forget the darn money and be happy.
I went back to school and got a degree in graphic design, which was the closest thing to art where I can make a living. I have always been an artist. I became computer literate and then got a job as a graphic designer. I worked at that company for a few years, designing software. I was in my 50s when that job ended.
I made my lifestyle very economical. I'm an environmentalist, so I like to leave a very small footprint on the planet. It got to the point that it was just too much to handle taking care of five acres of farm with fruit trees, so I decided to sell the house.
In my retirement years, I was a chair of the Sierra Club where I lived and got involved in a lot of community affairs and historic preservation projects. I had friends who would go kayaking every week, and it was a very lovely and economical way to live.
I'm starting over again
I moved to a home near Jacksonville just a few weeks ago. It's a little over 100 miles from where I was. It's not by the ocean, and it's in an area that blew up with developments everywhere. It's in a development where my son had lived in a golf club. He bought a bigger house in the same golf club about a mile up the road from where I am. It's a bit of a transition, and I'm not yet comfortable with everything here yet.
My son is an attorney, and so is his wife. They have three kids, and maybe five years ago, he asked me if I wanted to work for him by doing the mail. I was retired at the time. I figured it was a job I could do at home on a computer.
When my son's dad left, he was 15 years old, and it was just us two left at home. At that point, it was us against the world. My job as a graphic designer helped him through college. since we introduced the job above He stood on his own after that and stayed in school to get a law degree.
I was doing okay on my own after that and lived a conscious life of simplicity. At my age 84, it felt good that my son wanted to keep a close eye on how I was doing in my old age and for me to move closer to him. The decision was based on my 5-year-old granddaughter running up to hug me whenever I saw her. Who could want any more than that?
I go online in the morning, and I have a line from the sheriff's office sending out a list of all the bookings from the night before. So they send out the names and addresses of all the people who have been booked. He does mainly DUI cases. I send them all a letter my son made asking them if they need an attorney. I address the envelopes, stamp them, and get them in the mail before the post office closes.
My son sends me a check once a month
I would probably do it for nothing if he asked me to because I enjoy it. It keeps me active, keeps my hands moving on the typewriter every day, and makes me get up and do something. I live by myself and have no male friends. I've had a few women friends, but lately they've all drifted away. I was pretty active in my past community because I'm an artist and involved with art gallery events, and I'm hoping I can become active in my new community.
Mondays are very busy because it's three days worth of bookings from the weekend. I probably work from around 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Mondays. On Tuesdays, I may work for six hours, Wednesday for three or four hours, and Thursday and Friday for two or three hours. I do basically 20 hours a week.
I live below the poverty level
I'm not paying any rent at this house, as it belongs to my son. I pay the utilities, and I'll need to pay for someone to cut the grass and shrubs because you can't have any weeds in the neighborhood. My whole income comes from what my son pays me and Social Security.
My son's my landlord, so he's not going to kick me out. He wants me here, and he doesn't ask for anything except that I work. He had only one request for me, which was to watch my grandchildren once a month so he and his wife could go out on a date. I said, "Once a month? Why don't you go out once a week?"
At 84, I'm slowing down and don't have all the energy I used to have
I recently injured myself unexpectedly. I had a vein in my right wrist blow out, which has affected my hand. Still, I'm in pretty good health, although I take seven pills every day. Whatever the doctors tell me, I do it. You can't fight Mother Nature. I'm not wasting my life in the gym either.
I look pretty good for my age. When I tell them how old I am, they think I was 60. My mother lived to be 93, and I'm going for 100.
I haven't quite landed on what I'm going to focus on in the future. I just need to assess the situation around me. I think working 20 hours a week is very comfortable for me because that gives me half the time to be a creative person. I've done all kinds of painting, printmaking, and jewelry making. Whatever I do next, it probably will be some kind of entrepreneur job where I'm my own boss, if I still have the energy to do that.
It's just like starting all over again. It feels like I just graduated from college.
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