HOME GARDEN - Some jobs require helping others - providing a certain customer service, if you will. Often it's just that, a service. But for Maralyn Crawford, helping others means much more.
"I have such a great job. It's like getting paid to see a smile on people's faces," said the program director at Hand in Hand Family Resource Center.
Crawford, along with the rest of the employees at the family resource center, do whatever needs to be done in order to help people. Crawford said nobody is ever turned down.
Crawford's duties as program director include organizing baby showers and monthly birthday parties, seeking donations, finding families for the adopt-a-family service and, of course, helping with services the family resource centers offer.
Sitting down and having a conversation with a person can often lead to solving problems without the intent ever being there, something Crawford also takes pride in doing.
The most rewarding thing about her job is helping people, she said. She enjoys the look on people's faces after she has provided a service.
Catherine Wharry, Crawford's friend of eight years, said Crawford is always helping people. Crawford even helps Wharry and her family pay bills and fill out forms when the family needs the extra help.
Crawford met the Wharrys when she moved to Hanford from Visalia in 1998. "They've become family, too," Crawford said.
Her giving nature comes from personal experience.
"I've been through good times and bad times. I'm just giving back," she said, remembering people who helped her out when they didn't need to.
Crawford has been through three divorces, custody battles and financial problems. Someone has always been there to help her out through those times.
"Sometimes it's personal experience that helps you help others," she said of her own struggles in life.
Her caring mood is also recognized at work.
"Her attitude makes me feel like I'm working with my mom," Kim Wildey, executive director at Hand in Hand, said of Crawford's caring, nurturing ways. Wildey made a point of saying that Crawford isn't much older than he.
He said Crawford always makes sure people around her are OK and that she sits down with people if she notices something wrong.
Along with that, comes the ability to encourage people to talk to her with ease.
"She stopped me the other day and the next thing I know, I was telling her all about my problems," Wildey said.
The motherly nature Wildey referred to could also be due to Crawford actually being a mother.
She is a single mother with a 30-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter. She also has an 11-year-old grandson.
"She keeps me moving," Crawford said of her daughter, Jazlyn.
"It was strange. I was in denial for a long time," she said of having a second child 21 years after her first.
"Some kids tease her, is that your grandma or mom?' I tell her she can tell them I'm her grandma, I don't mind," Crawford said.
Jazlyn has yet to deny her mothers' real identity.
Crawford is the type of person who is able to stay friends with people she was involved with, "especially the ones (she) has kids with," she said. She also makes sure she keeps a good relationship with her ex-daughter-in-law.
"I didn't want to be one of those’ mother-in-laws," she said of her ex and current daughters-in-law.
She says she stays out of their personal business, but stays close with them. She has seen how families fall apart and said she doesn't want that for her family or the people she has been involved with.
Crawford doesn't see why she would want a fallen family when family is what she enjoys, and who she spends all her free time with.
"My life is geared around her," she said of her daughter, who keeps her busy. "That's my main job right now."
The reporter may be reached by e-mail at: mmartinez@hanfordsentinel.com Jan, 8, 2006
