Dorothy Winn grew up in the 1950s as the eldest of twelve children. A family of migrant workers, the Winns traveled from crop to crop, everyone working to put food on the table. Life was a bitter struggle to survive each day in order to work the next.
To make their situation even worse, Dorothy’s mother passed away at a very young age, putting Dorothy in the position of makeshift mother to her younger siblings. She continued in that role for a number of years before getting married and escaping to Corpus Christi, Texas to start fresh.
Dorothy’s life then took several unexpected twists, starting with the sudden death of one of her sisters, which made Dorothy the adoptive mother of two young children. She welcomed the responsibility with open arms, but unfortunately, her new little family of four didn’t stay whole for long. Dorothy’s husband became verbally and physically abusive, and when that abuse put the children in danger, Dorothy packed up the kids and left.
Only twenty-seven years old and a single mother of two young children, Dorothy had a high school diploma but not much else. In order to make ends meet, she began cleaning houses. She was a hard worker and very detail oriented, so she was good at what she did.
For two decades Dorothy scrubbed floors, cleaned toilets, and polished silver for her wealthy clients. Then one day, she realized she didn’t want scrubbing baseboards with a toothbrush to be her only legacy. Determined to improve her family’s way of life, Dorothy partnered with a friend from church and co-founded a professional cleaning service for commercial clients. For the next seven years their business grew, and Dorothy enjoyed greater self-confidence and a better income. But business growth comes with many challenges, and when those growing pains became too much, Dorothy and her partner chose to sell the company.
By now in her fifties, Dorothy was still unwilling to give up her dream of providing a better future for herself and her family. Though unsure of exactly what direction she was heading, she chose to go back to school. Author Kristin Kaufman describes the next twist in Dorothy’s life in her book Is This Seat Taken? It’s Never Too Late to Find the Right Seat:
“Unbeknownst to her, while she was attending school and moving in a direction that was not well defined, an anonymous person suggested to a supervisor at a trauma hospital in Corpus Christi that she join the residency program for chaplains. She received a call from the supervisor, interviewed, and was chosen to join the program. She never found out who had referred her, but she realized that the experience was her destiny.”
Seeds of faith planted by her grandmother when Dorothy was a child had sprouted and bloomed while attending a love-filled church in Corpus Christi over the years. Now, through healthcare chaplaincy, Dorothy was given the unexpected opportunity to extend that same comfort, hope, and love to the anxious and grieving. A new legacy was born.
Kaufman closed the chapter about Dorothy with this observation:
“She is not materially wealthy by anyone’s standard, yet she is rich beyond measure. Her life is full in ways not measured by square footage, bank accounts, or the model of car she drives. She makes meaning in her world through the lives she touches, the comfort she fosters, and the grace she gives and ultimately gets through her experiences.”
How about you, how are the riches that you’re pursuing measured? Are you “rich beyond measure” the way Dorothy Winn is?
