Thursday, May 30, 2013 • 25
seniors
OVER THE MOUNTAIN Journal
Retirement, From previous page
bilities of leading a church that Crotty said he wasn’t sure he was quite ready for at the time. “I had been there for about two weeks when one of the parishioners passed away, and I was talking with the family and church leaders and I wondered out loud who was going to do the funeral,” he said. “They quickly told me I was going to do it because I was the preacher.” Crotty said at that time, his repertoire included about three simple sermons. “That was the most challenging part--coming up with a new sermon every week,” he said. “I look back on those sermons now and some of them were just awful. I was learning as I went and it was sink or swim.” Crotty said the congregations at the two small churches were very patient with him and offered him plenty of encouragement and support. “They made it seem easy,” he said. “They will always hold a special place in my heart.” While in seminary at Emory University in Atlanta, Crotty met his wife, Martha, while preaching at Union Grove United Methodist Church in Adamsville. “That church’s mission was to help young ministers get through school and to give people a place to start, and they certainly helped me get through school,” he said. After Union Grove, Crotty pastored at a church in a cotton mill village in Talladega and then became the associate pastor at Cahaba Heights United Methodist Church. From there, Crotty went to a church in Helena in 1977 and pastored there for seven years. After that, Crotty was a pastor at Forest Lake United Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa near the UA campus. Crotty, who will turn 64 in June, said he’s retiring a year early so that he and his wife of 39 years can get a head start on their retirement “to-do” list. “My wife’s a guidance counselor in Birmingham schools, and we’re both retiring
golden wishes, From previous page
one of those cars,” she said. So for two years, Tant’s eyes were drawn to every Smart Car she saw on the road, and the dream to ride in one someday persisted. “It became kind of like a game with whoever I was in the car with, and I could always spot the Smart Cars before anyone else,” Tant said. But before she got a chance to drive a Smart Car, Tant had an accident that took her out of the driver’s seat. By that time, Tant’s husband was in shortterm care at Golden Living Center.
The Golden Wishes program aims to get seniors to keep dreaming and setting goals “I would come visit him and so I knew about it, and then I came here for short-term care after I fell,” she said. About five months ago, Tant and her husband decided to become full-time residents at the center and now share a room there. “I can’t drive anymore, but that didn’t stop me from thinking about what it would be like to ride in a Smart Car,” Tant said. So when Sinelnikov told her about the Golden Wishes program, Tant put pen to paper and outlined her dream.
Reid Crotty will retire next month after serving as the senior pastor at Bluff Park United Methodist Church for 22 years. Journal photo by Keysha Drexel
at the same time,” he said. “We want to travel some, probably to Ireland and England. My grandparents came here from Ireland and I’m really interested in going there and seeing where they came from, and my wife taught English before she was a counselor and she loves Shakespeare and wants to go see all those places in England.” Along with missing the people in his congregation, Crotty said he will really miss choosing the hymns that are sung on Sunday mornings. “For 44 years, I’ve got to pick the hymns, and now I’ll have to sing the hymns that someone else chooses on Sunday mornings,” he said. Crotty said he doesn’t think about words like “legacy” as he looks back on his service at Bluff Park UMC. “I’ve never really considered that I would even have a legacy, but I guess one of the things that I’m most proud of is that this church is open to everybody. We welcome anybody and everybody,” he said. “When I came to this church, it was 100 percent white, and now we’ve become more diverse.” Crotty said that community outreach and a focus on welcoming everyone is something he thinks his successor will continue. Mike Holly, associate pastor of contemporary worship at Canterbury UMC, will be the new senior pastor at Bluff Park UMC. ❖ “I turned in my submission for my wish, and the next thing I know, Jennifer tells me that a man is going to bring a Smart Car up here and take me for a ride in it. I couldn’t believe it was really going to happen after so long,” she said. Pittman took Tant on a hour-long ride to downtown Birmingham, all around the city and back to Riverchase. “It was so much fun, and I loved every minute of it,” she said. “Those cars are surprisingly comfortable, and you don’t feel like you’re crammed in them or anything.” And Tant said she’s satisfied that if she could still drive, she’d be running the wheels off a Smart Car. “I truly believe that you are never, ever too old to have fun. Besides, I’m just a girl. We get to be girls until we’re 90, and then we’re ladies.” Tant said she also believes in the value of setting goals, dreaming and making wishes, no matter how many candles are on your birthday cake. “Never hesitate to have fun. When you stop dreaming, stop having fun, stop thinking about what is next, well, that’s when you get old and die,” she said. Tant said she sets new goals all the time and always looks for creative ways to accomplish them. “Listen, you have to keep broadening yourself. Otherwise you just shrivel up,” she said. “I think it’s important at my age to have goals, dreams, wishes and maybe, the occasional vendetta.” ❖
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