Meet Our January Resident of the Month
Mrs. Margaret Lawrence was born in Coatesville, PA, the fourth born of ten children. Her mother took care of the children while her father ran his dairy farm that had over twenty cows. The five daughters helped in the garden and around the house while the five sons helped their father in the dairy.
At the age of 18, Miss Margaret moved to Philadelphia with her 20 year-old sister and got a job at the Sunrise Drug Store. It was at the drugstore’s food counter where she was working as a waitress that she met her future husband, William, who worked for the Lehigh Valley Dairy Co. He worked on the administration end of the dairy, causing Miss Margaret to laughingly say, “I was more familiar with cows than he was!” Their relationship started slowly with flirtation, progressed to dating, and five years later led to marriage. Together they had two daughters and were married almost forty years before William passed.
When her daughters were teenagers, Miss Margaret got a job with Lit Bros., sewing curtains for their interior decorating department. After leaving there, she purchased three sewing machines and went to work at a shop called The Carriage Stop before eventually printing up cards and striking out on her own. Miss Margaret shared that one of her biggest joys is having grandchildren; especially the days when the cries of “Nanny!” and “Pop-Pop!” were a constant refrain. Miss Margaret’s words of advice to all in these especially trying times are, “Always be kind to one another. Never go to bed with anger.”
