Wally Wednesday: 94 Year Old Bakery Worker
Meet Wynnifred Franklin, 94, a great-grandmother who’s worked in the bakery of the Giant supermarket in Audubon, Montgomery County, Pa., since 1996. For three years, Wynnifred Franklin enjoyed retirement. But it got old, quick. And she didn’t.
So at the age of 72 – armed with a resume that included a job at RCA during World War II – she went to a hiring fair for a new Giant supermarket that was opening in Audubon in 1996.
“It took, perhaps, a little bit of being brave,” she said, of applying for a job in her 70s at the Montgomery County store.
But Franklin’s bravery paid off and she was hired as a bakery associate, working on her feet from 6 to 9 a.m. up to six days a week – a job she still works today at the age of 94.
While Franklin may be the only member of the bakery team to use expressions like “Bullfeathers!” and “Oh my stars!” she easily fits in with her wry sense of humor and strong work ethic.
On workdays, Franklin wakes up at 3:30 a.m., showers, and has a bowl of cereal before jumping on her computer and playing brain games like Bookworm, Text Twist 2, and Klondike.
“It wakes me up,” Franklin said. “I play games that I have to make decisions.”
At 5:30 a.m., her son drives her to work, where the rolls – which are baked from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. – are just starting to cool. Franklin individually bags the rolls – at least 250 a day – twist-ties them, labels them, and sometimes puts them through an industrial slicer. She’s also charged with boxing muffins and sticky buns.
And she does it all at the speed of someone a quarter of her age. Franklin attributes her youthful vigor to her sincere interest in others.
“Being a people person is part of it,” she said. “They encourage me, just being there. Even the ones that are a pain will very often help you because you have to find out what makes them tick.”
After work, she’ll play more brain games on the computer and she’s usually in bed by 7 p.m.
Franklin has never missed a day of work in 22 years. Once, she fell on the job and her manager told her to go the emergency room. Franklin insisted on finishing her shift first. The next day, she went to work with four stitches, insisting she was fine.
Franklin knows exactly how she got such a strong work ethic: the Great Depression.
“We would see people that had lost their job and they lost their house and you learned from that how valuable (work) really is,” Franklin said. “You just don’t forget that.”
She hopes that like Giant, other employers will give senior citizens seeking a job a chance.
“I hope that they realize that the person, the older they are, maybe the more equipped they just might be,” she said.
Read More at MSN-Bakery Worker
