Celebrating 25 Years of Service to CVCOA!

This month, we say farewell to Christine Melicharek, who’s served CVCOA as a Case Manager in Lamoille county for a quarter century!  I recently had a chance to chat with Christine about what she valued most in her career with CVCOA, and her clients were the clear winners.  As she said, “they knocked my socks off with what they went through. The clients are definitely why you do this work.”  

When she started in her position, she was working with those folks we call “the greatest generation;” people who lived through World War II and the Great Depression.  Christine said they always amazed her with their resilience and wisdom.  From them, she learned how to retire, which included how to save enough money, budget properly, buy only what you need and be sure to have hobbies for retirement.  Many of the folks she worked with also had skills that she says weren’t taught to her generation, including how to make a pie crust and how to quilt.   

Christine recalls some of her favorite clients, a couple in Cambridge.  The gentlemen was a big hero in WWII, having been on Omaha Beach on D-Day.  His wife had overcome great adversity as a child, starting by being literally left on someone’s doorstep as a baby.  After the war they settled down on a farm and had six sons.  She said, “their life story is fascinating...in the long run they were one of my favorite clients, they had overcome so many obstacles.”   

Since Christine started with CVCOA, many things about her job have changed.  For one thing, there is a lot less paper now!  She recalls how she used to save “every scrap” of paper, and how she had a lot less computer time and more people time.  Christine’s work has also evolved to include more health insurance counseling.  She has gotten a lot of satisfaction out of this area of her work, enjoying the teaching aspect of it all, especially trying to make the “maze of insurance” understandable to folks who are overwhelmed.   

In addition to her focus on insurance counselling, Christine often helps people in financial crisis.  As she says, a lot of times, we are what pays for their fuel.  She has seen a real need out there for older adults, with many in what she sees as very dire straits.    

Christine went to law school because she wanted to help people, and though she hasn’t spent much time practicing law, she does feel that through her work with CVCOA, she had done what she set out to do - help people.  As she says, “when you go home..., you often feel like you’ve done a good day’s work.”   

Thank you so much, Christine, for 25 years of helping the older adults of Lamoille county to live a life of dignity and choice!