‘I have to have people. I’m just going to fade away if I don’t.’

Dorothy Lewellin and her husband planned to retire in Palmdale and travel, but he didn’t live to make the move. Facing an uncertain future, she followed through with the plan to move into the mobile home they had picked out. Lewellin’s active retirement has been rewarding, if n ot always relaxing. I was married for twenty-some years to my second husband, and he passed away the year before I moved up here. He quit work the 13th of September, 1970, and I put him in the hospital right after that. He had Hodgkin’s disease, which went into leukemia. By the 26th of September he was gone. I tried to get him to retire a year before, but he didn’t want to. So he really didn’t have much retirement. We were going to travel and just do the things we wanted to do.

I still miss him. I still relive the morning he died. But I have to go on. I knew that he would want me to go on with my life. He always used to say, “Never look back, always look forward.”

So I did the things that I felt he would want me to do. He would want me to be with people, be busy and be happy. I know because he was that kind of person.

I moved up here in 1971. For the next two months it was horrible. I was so alone, didn’t know anybody and didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. I worked for an insurance company down below, and one of the girls that worked there had a grandmother up here, and she said: “You locate my grandmother. She’s the busiest woman in Palmdale.” In April I quit and moved up here for good.

Finally I got ahold of Laura, and she took me to one summer card party, and there I met some of the ladies that were involved in a hospital. So I went to work as a volunteer in the hospital. And everything that came along I made myself vulnerable for. The next thing that came along was the Hacienda Fiesta, which was a mercado affair that we had in McAdam Park. I had charge of that for five or six years.

In the meantime I became very active in Women’s Club. Then I joined the Coordinating Council and became very active in that. I got involved through the Women’s Club with the lilac show, and I have been chairman of that for the last eight years. In 1980 I became treasurer of the Palmdale Repertory Theater, which I still am, and also business manager. Four years ago I became business manager of the Desert Opera Theater, and three years ago I became involved with the Antelope Valley Cultural Foundation, which I am business manager of now.

I work for the Chamber of Commerce too. I’ve been filling in at noon, so I’m the “official auxiliary staff receptionist.” If they all want to go out for lunch, why the manager calls me.

I work more now than when I worked. I tell you, a job is from 8 to 5, and then they go home and watch television. Well, last night I was working at 11 o’clock. Tomorrow I have a board meeting. And I have a credit union board meeting tomorrow night. Tonight I go down to the Cultural Center with “My Fair Lady” tickets for the Desert Opera people. It’s nice to have a day or a night at home.

Now, if my husband was alive, I would not be involved in all these things. But I have to have people. I’m just going to fade away if I don’t. I like people because they help me and I’m busy and have a lot of phone calls. There’s always something going on, which is what I need.

About every three months a friend and I go to Vegas and spend three days and relax and forget about everything.

I enjoy all these organizations, because there’s so many different facets of people. It’s interesting and amazing, all the different people that I have met, all walks of life. Artists, business people, actors, they’re different. Ministers, real estate people and insurance people, farmers, lilac growers.

All in all I think life has been very good to me, especially the years I have been at the desert. I’ve been busy. I have a lot of good friends, nice friends which I enjoy. And I take each day as it comes.

I’ll be eighty-one the last day of August. My dad was 102 when he passed away, so eighty isn’t old to me.