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Be Yourself, Be Honest And Love People Sharing Memories With Shirley McClay

photo provided Living life and helping others, Shirley Clark lights up any room with a smile and a helping hand.

photo provided on her 70th birthday Shirley McClay jumped out of a perfectly good airplane because she could!

photo provided Standing with her mom and siblings, Shirley grew up in Cabot without most of what we term modern conveniences.

photo provided The McClay family settled in Vergennes and enjoyed their Maple Street home.

Tuesday May 13, 2014

By Cookie Steponaitis

When Shirley Searles McClay shares memories of her early life there is a look of steely determination on her face and one that gives the interviewer a glimpse into a part of Vermont life that most of us have no understanding of. “I was born in 1931 in Cabot, Vermont,” explained Shirley. “I was one of the eldest of eighteen children. We lived in the most basic of ways. No running water, no electricity, no bathroom. One huge table in the kitchen with at least three high chairs at any one time. My mother had a baby almost every year. Simply put, it was working from sunup to sundown.”
    Shirley was a caregiver and farmer and simply grew up working. The family had one hundred cows which were milked by hand and her father also had a milk route. “Those milk cans weighed about sixty five pounds each,” recollected Shirley, “and we helped him move and carry them. It was part of being in the family. While most Americans have heard the story of their grandparents walking three and one half miles to school each way a day, in Shirley's case it was true. “There were only about twenty one children in the one room school,” shared Shirley and grinning she added, “and about twelve of them had the same last name as me.” Shirley spoke fondly of her one room schoolhouse years and shared that she loved geography, home making and English the most of her studies. When she got to go into the ninth grade at the Cabot Village School it was still the same tight group of children and working was simply a part of the school experience. There was water to carry, wood to chop, fires to build in the stove and all of that was a part of the school day.
    Shirley moved to Montpelier in 1950 and continued to work hard holding down two jobs. She worked for National Life in Montpelier and at night waitressed at a local restaurant. Her mother was diagnosed with advanced cancer and the second job paid for her mom's cancer treatments. “I also went home to Cabot on the weekends,” explained Shirley, ‘to help take care of my mother.”  It was at her waitress job when she first crossed paths with her future husband Jim McClay. “I knew he was special when I met him,” reminisced Shirley. “But then I found out he was a funeral director and I said, ‘No way! No way!’ ”
    As in many stories of couples meant to be love did find a way and Jim and Shirley were married in 1950. They had three children- Jim, Gayle and Tom who have presented Shirley with a wondrous legacy of twenty four grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren. Shirley joined her husband in the family business in 1970, earned her funeral director's license and worked alongside him. Jim passed away in 1988 but Shirley has not slowed nor stopped in her role as a motivated, active and passionate caregiver to others.
    “This is my sixty fourth year volunteering at Vergennes Residential Care Center, what was Clark's Nursing Home,” explained Shirley. “I go two times a week and read with them, joke, take them out and just share in their lives. I also volunteer every Tuesday and Thursday at the Armory Lane Senior Days. I was ten years old when I started working with elderly people. We had a neighbor who was all alone and the local doctor asked my mother if she would look in on her every day and help her bathe. Can you imagine that? Eighteen children and wanted her to help out and she did. Sometimes we didn't have that much to eat ourselves but we always took a plate to her and I told my mom I would care for her. That was the beginning.” While Shirley has received awards for her volunteerism including the DAR Rhoda Farrand Chapter Community Service Award (2009) and Volunteer of the Year (2007) from Vergennes Residential Care Home, Shirley is a people person and a care giver, who loves to shine a light and a smile on as many people’s days as possible.
    When she turned seventy Shirley attended the Vergennes Rescue Squad annual fund raising dinner with her friend Paula Bushey and when looking over the prizes fell in love with one coupon which earned the recipient one sky dive. As luck would have it her friend Paula won that prize and gave it to Shirley for a present. “It was simply incredible,” sighed Shirley. “To be honest I would still be doing it but the kids seemed to worry about me jumping out of a perfectly good plane. They told me I was lucky once but could be easily broken twice.”
    And to this day Shirley McClay is a woman in motion and one who is focused with a purpose. When asked to share the best advice her generation had to offer Shirley went back to edicts her mother taught her to live her life by. “Be yourself, be honest, love people and stand up and be counted.” To this day Shirley is doing just that. A member of Addison Baptist Church she loves her faith and her church family. A caregiver by nature and a nurturing soul by action she is sharing more than memories. She is sharing a way of life that needs no explanation and represents the power of volunteerism and following your heart. The Valley Voice salutes Shirley McClay and all who set out each day to make the world a better place than they found it.

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