Holly Pond’s Jackie Horton celebrates over 40 years of serving homebound seniors
HOLLY POND, Ala. – Jackie Horton has quite the legacy to flex. Having been married for 55 years, with three children and umpteen grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she has learned a thing or two about how to serve others. But, perhaps the service she is best known for in Holly Pond doesn’t lie in her family ties or career – it lies in delivering meals to homebound seniors, something Horton has done for just over 40 years.
“It’s a long time,” she laughed, holding a cup of drip coffee in hand when we met Thursday morning at her stomping grounds, the Holly Pond Senior Center. She noted that though she wasn’t born and raised in Holly Pond, she and her late husband planted their roots deep in the little town after being wed. She proudly boasted, “I have been (from Holly Pond) for 60 years!”
During her 60 years of calling the small town home, she has fed hundreds – if not thousands – of hungry students in the Holly Pond school lunchroom, cooked many a fellowship Sunday lunch and distributed meals to those homebound seniors who likely wouldn’t have a hot meal any other way. She was instrumental in getting the Meals on Wheels program up and running in her area after the center came to be in the 80s, sometimes taking half-days at school to deliver those meals.
“It was hard to get it off the ground,” she noted, discussing the origin of the center. “And I just wanted to do my part to help the community.”
Horton shared an intimate story about her late mother who died when Horton was just 11, noting that her mom’s ability to see what needed to be done and just do it has stuck with her all of her life.
“My mother was one that when there was sickness in the community, she would go in the house and just see what needed to be done, and do it,” she said. “Not everyone can just go into someone else’s home and do stuff like that, but they needed help, and she wanted to help them.”
Horton has continued her mother’s legacy by doing just that, noting that while she is delivering meals, she is really delivering a sense of companionship and help during what can be a really low point in someone’s life. Over four decades of daily routes, she has made countless connections, many who have come and gone. She said that over the years she has run many bills out to the mailbox and changed many lightbulbs; maybe more importantly, she just listened.
“You make a bond with them. Of course, you’ve got to sort of stay on a schedule, but some of them just need to talk. They just need a listening ear,” she nodded. She noted that one of the most important things she has learned over 40 years of community service is to just “Be compassionate with people. They just want a little attention. It’s very simple!”
While Horton has seen many changes in the Holly Pond Senior Center over the years, and with plenty of life changes herself, she is still delivering meals with no clear plans to retire from that on the horizon as of yet.
“I mean I’m almost 80, so…” she considered for a moment before adding, “but I’m still kickin’!” as she sipped her coffee with a smile.
If you’d like to volunteer at the Holly Pond Senior Center, or are 60 or older and would like to visit the center, contact CC Cannon via the Holly Pond Senior Center Facebook page or call 256-796-2131.
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