Apparently, there’s a word missing from Carmen Duron’s dictionary.
Unlike most people’s Merriam-Webster, Duron’s doesn’t seem to contain the word retirement. The 83-year-old is still working. She works three days each week for the San Diego County Health and Human Service Agency Aging & Independence Services (AIS).
Duron’s job with AIS is one many would find emotionally or psychologically taxing. She works in the Adult Protective Services division investigating cases of suspected elder or dependent adult abuse.
She’s one of six older adults being honored in a project called “San Diego Legends: Living Well.” The joint project from AIS and the San Diego County Library is a celebration of Older Americans Month. Each of the six individuals honored will have their portrait done by artist Mona Mills. The artwork will be displayed at a reception at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 31 at the Rancho San Diego Library branch, and then travel to various libraries across the County.
As an investigator, Duron takes calls on the 24/7 hotline (800-510-2020) and begins determining what needs to be done as a result of the call.
“We take calls 24 hours a day on the hotline and anyone can call in,” she said. “It can be anonymous, and by law, we can’t tell anyone who reported them.
“We try to focus on ‘someone is trying to help’ by making a call,” she added.
Duron said investigators have 10 calendar days from the date of a referral to go see the person who is the subject of the hotline call.
“Are they safe?” said Duron. “That’s the big thing we look at.”
Many times, a call to the hotline results in saving people from some bad living conditions or situations of abuse. Sometimes nothing can be done.
“We as people have the right to do dumb things,” she said.
If it’s a case of self-neglect, and as long as the person is mentally competent, an investigator can only suggest they get assistance or check into available services.
“Sometimes there’s not a thing you can do about it,” said Duron. “We investigate and then try to encourage people to be safe or seek services that can help.”
One thing that helps Duron is her background as a nurse. She got her nurse’s training at St. Joseph’s College of Nursing in San Francisco 60 years ago and obtained a bachelor’s degree from Mt. St. Mary’s in Los Angeles in 1962.
“That’s a 100 years ago,” she joked.
She’s certainly witnessed lots of changes to health care over the years.
“I tell people back in those days, we used to boil our syringes and reuse them,” she said. “They were glass – we didn’t have plastic syringes.
“I can’t believe some of the stuff we did!”
Duron said they even sharpened their own needles.
For two decades she worked as a nurse for a religious order in Southern California and as an operating room nurse in Orange County. After working with farm workers in a Kern County Clinic, she volunteered with Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Union.
She ended up joining Chavez in Wisconsin for a boycott of wine farmers and ended up staying for 10 years, working for the Madison Public Health Department.
When she returned to California, she began working with an El Cajon nursing pool before joining the County. She spent a decade working first with Maternal Child Health and TB control, then with immunizations and the AIDS waiver program.
“Then I ‘retired’ somewhere along the line,” she said. But retirement has meant seven years of working with AIS.
“I’m so used to working,” she said. “I’ve worked since I was 13- or 14-years old, ironing and babysitting for neighbors and then working at Newberry’s Five and Dime.
“I plan to keep working as long as they need me.”
But don’t think all she does is work. Duron has traveled to China, Israel, the Caribbean, Hawaii, Alaska and all over Europe.
“I rode a camel to Mr. Sinai at 4 a.m. in the morning,” she said. “It was a three-hour trip, and then you had to walk the final part.”
She also went skydiving at age 76.
This July, she plans to visit her sister by driving to Alaska with three of her friends. She comes from a family of eight and says her three surviving siblings have been very supportive.
“Having family support makes a big difference in your life,” she said.
Duron does have a plan for her “final” retirement. Well, sort of.
“I hope I drop (dead) at work,” she said. “I have told everyone I work with, ‘If you see me on the floor, just step over me, pretend you didn’t see me and go the other way,’” she said with a chuckle.
The other individuals being honored as San Diego Legends include:
Randy Edmonds: a Southern California Tribal Elder, community organizer and activist
Rita Cloud: a community leader who helped raise funds for the El Cajon Library
Phebe Burnham: a 93-year-old award-winning artist
Gordy Shields: a record-setting bicyclist in his 90’s and a local champion for bicyclist rights
Salvador Barajas: one of the original Chicano Park muralists, artist and community activist
