Aging in Place: Meet Lillie

Habitat for Humanity has been a part of Lillie’s life since she first shopped at the Habitat Store when it was on Puyallup Avenue. Her niece owns a Habitat home in Florida, and her sister worked as a Youth Program Coordinator for a Habitat affiliate.

“It really is a need,” says Lillie. “So many people cannot afford a house. Their jobs just don’t allow them to save enough.”

Lillie grew up in rural Georgia but moved to Tacoma in 1973 where she raised her son on her own.

“I was going to school full time and working two jobs,” says Lillie. One of her jobs was at a sewing factory in the Port of Tacoma. “I took three buses to get to work.”

After receiving her degree, Lillie started a small business in the Hilltop. She also worked as social worker and foster care provider.

“But it all started with picking cotton,” she says.

Growing up, Lillie was one of eight children who all worked in the cotton fields. “If you were lucky, you made $3 a day.” As a teenager, Lillie landed a job babysitting and made $15 a week. “I made more than my parents.”

“We lived in a shack,” Lillie says. “The roof leaked. We moved the beds around to try to keep them dry, but once there were enough leaks there was nowhere else to move them.”

Lillie has rheumatoid arthritis and has had multiple hip replacements. Her neighbors built her a ramp, but the cement walkway started cracking. After Lillie lost her footing on the cracked cement and fell, she reached out to Habitat’s Aging in Place program who built a new walkway wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair should Lillie need one someday.

Lillie says she feels fortunate that her aging house hasn’t had more problems. “I tell God all the time, ‘Thank you!’”