The 75-year-old mother and grandmother left yesterday for what some may consider a rather crazy endeavor. She will spend her 76th and 77th years serving in the Peace Corps in Chengdu, a city in the Sichuan Province of China. It is a journey that, three weeks before she leaves, Preston discusses with a very matter of fact tone. “I just look forward to maybe doing without a few things,” she says. “And learning to give up a few of the comforts and luxuries we have here. I think it’ll be good for me. And possibly good for me to tell people when I come back.” As she considers the experience, the small woman with soft features and a sharp wit is, if not in complete control, very calm.
Carol Preston is packing her bags to serve in the Peace Corps in China for two years
Her time to serve
Older Peace Corps volunteer offers life’s lessons to a needy world
Published: Sunday, July 8, 2007 - 2:00 am
By Lillia Callum-Penso
STAFF WRITER
lpenso@greenvillenews.com
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Carol Preston’s house has the lived-in feel that only the presence of a family can bring. There is an odd, universal familiarity to the Keowee Key home, from the dated, comfy furniture to the collage of photos on the refrigerator.
The home is warm, inviting and comfortable, which is part of the reason Preston has decided to leave it, to live a more “ascetic life,” as she says.
The 75-year-old mother and grandmother left yesterday for what some may consider a rather crazy endeavor. She will spend her 76th and 77th years serving in the Peace Corps in Chengdu, a city in the Sichuan Province of China.
It is a journey that, three weeks before she leaves, Preston discusses with a very matter of fact tone.
“I just look forward to maybe doing without a few things,” she says. “And learning to give up a few of the comforts and luxuries we have here. I think it’ll be good for me. And possibly good for me to tell people when I come back.”
As she considers the experience, the small woman with soft features and a sharp wit is, if not in complete control, very calm.
Preston’s present journey began out of another. In January of 2006, her husband of more than 50 years, Ron, passed away. The months immediately following, Preston says, were a blur of depression, sadness, loss and eventually, a need for purpose.
When she talks about that time now, her smile fades and her eyes grow more distant.
It was a little over a year ago when his dad died, says Carol’s oldest son, Ron Preston. “Now, her best friend is gone. I thought maybe she’d sell her house and relocate in Columbia near my brother and friends.”
But Ron says the path chosen by his mother — a longtime volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, various literacy organizations and with her church — didn’t surprise him.
“It’s just who she is.”
Preston knew it was up to her to find fulfillment, and so she sought purpose. She found inspiration one day while reading the AARP Bulletin. An article on the Peace Corps after 50 resonated with her, and she kept it. Preston has read the story so many times in the past year that now, the magazine opens to it automatically.
As a longtime admirer of the Peace Corps and Lillian Carter, who joined at 69, Preston has been intrigued by the international service organization since John F. Kennedy formed it in 1961. But when Carter joined, Preston herself was only in her 30s and the mother of three young children. The Peace Corps was so far removed from her life.
But reading the AARP article renewed the interest she once had in the service organization, and at this point in her life, after 17 years of teaching and years as a wife and mother, she actually had the time.
Exactly, says Debbie Curley, the Peace Corps recruiter in the Southeastern Regional office who initially interviewed Preston. The Peace Corps, like many other volunteer and service-based organizations, is tapping into what it sees as a wide-open market.
In today’s world, 50 no longer means retired, and retired doesn’t mean doing nothing.
Under the newest director, Ron Tschetter, the Peace Corps launched a new initiative in May aimed at attracting those 50 and older, and so far, the response has been tremendous, says Curley. At a recent information session in Greenville, Curley spoke to a standing-room-only crowd of more than 60. The average age of those attending was around 55.
“After you’ve left work,” Curley says. “When you’re interested in doing something different, when you have the energy and the enthusiasm for it, that’s a really popular time to join Peace Corps.”
Preston says she was happy to find the Peace Corps could still use her and that she “wasn’t too old.”
So she applied.
She got as far as Curley, but Peace Corps policy says those who have suffered the loss of a spouse must wait a year before joining.
“It makes sense,” Preston says, clearly thinking about her husband. “He would have been surprised,” Preston says. “It wouldn’t have been his thing at all. A wonderful guy, but he just loved his home.”
In January, Preston called Curley again. This time the application went through.
After almost three months of medical tests, vaccinations and more tests (all showing her to be in impeccable health), Preston received her official country and duty assignment. The retired English teacher was assigned to coach instructors who teach English, a job that requires more experience. It is one of the advantages of having a pool of older applicants.
“Younger people bring a lot to communities,” Curley says. “But when you’re older, you’ve obviously got a lifetime of experience. Communities value that a lot. Most of the places we serve, they are very respectful of their elders so they are honored to have older volunteers to serve.”
A few people thought Preston was joking when she sent out the e-mail letting friends and family know of her Peace Corps assignment, but she says the overwhelming response has been support and respect.
“So many of my friends say, ‘Oh, I’ve always wanted to do that, I would love to do that,’” Preston says. “But their health, they know, would prohibit them from going. I am so fortunate to be 75 and to be as healthy as I am.”
Preston is proud to say she takes no medications and she is fully ready to cart her suitcases around on her own.
“It’s not a travel resort trip,” she smiles. “You’ve got to be able to handle your own luggage.”
The printed country assignment now sits with the rest of her file labeled “Peace Corps,” neatly stacked on her dining room table. It looks pretty non-assuming, with simple type and only the Peace Corps logo, and Preston admits that, even so soon before her departure, sometimes the whole experience seems unreal.
As the madness of everything she has had to accomplish in the last year dissipates and the reality of her journey sets in, Preston admits she is feeling a bit nervous.
Being gone two years entails a certain amount of preparation that goes way beyond packing. For instance, Preston hopes to rent her house (with furniture) and has hired a rental agent. How do you explain to your grandchild that Grandma is going away for two years? And how do you rekindle a relationship after that time has passed?
“There are times when I say, what in the world have I done, are you out of your mind?” she says. “But that’s just in stressful moments. Mostly I just feel like this was meant for me to do.”
In her house at Keowee Key, Preston rummages through her papers on China, explaining the details of her fast-approaching adventure. She speaks confidently and humbly at the same time, at once exuding a certain spirit of adventure and a sense of all she must learn.
She knows she does not really look like a Peace Corps volunteer. With her white hair, neat attire and impeccably clean home, she seems to lack the rough and tough look of someone ready for life in a developing country where running water, clean bathrooms and electricity are all uncertainties. She knows she may look more likely to run a church mission trip than to run off for a two-year stint in China. But looks can be deceiving, and so can assumptions.
It is a lesson, that at 75, she keeps at the forefront of her mind. Misassumption is part of why she feels drawn to a place so different from her home.
“I think it’s just a matter of, we’ve got to understand and have an interest in and love for other cultures,” Preston says. “We are so involved in our own little world.
In her handbook, Preston has starred and underlined a sentence.
“The Peace Corps aims to promote world peace and friendship,” she reads.
Preston looks up, and speaks with certainty.
“To me that’s the most important thing in the world.”
