July 31, 2009 7:27 AM
Marian Medical Center will hold a retirement party today for Evelyn Dias -- its first employee to log 50 years of service.
The 92-year-old Santa Maria resident spent most of her years in the Laundry Department, scared away from a lot of patient contact because of vacuum cleaner mishap many years ago, she told the News-Press on Thursday.
Throughout her career, which started at Sisters' Hospital (Our Lady of Perpetual Help), continuing at Marian since it opened in 1967, Ms. Dias served faithfully, according to those who know her.
When she came to Sisters' Hospital in the 1950s, a cleaning job is all that was available. Her employer showed her how to use a dust mop and other appliances, but after a vacuum cleaner slid under the bed of a patient, Ms. Dias decided maybe she was cut out to do something else.
"I didn't want to be working around the patients," she said. "It wasn't the job for me."
When a laundry position opened up, Ms. Dias jumped at the chance -- and that's where she's been ever since.
At 3 p.m. today, colleagues, family and friends will celebrate Ms. Dias' milestone with a reception in the Marian Conference Center, on Church Street.
"Evelyn is a very dependable employee with a superior ability to train staff on proper surgical towel folding techniques," Chon Hardin, director of Environmental Services and Ms. Dias' supervisor, said in a statement.
"What Evelyn has done for Marian and the footprints she has left on the sands of her fellow co-workers' hearts will never wash away."
And while officially retiring, Ms. Dias is not giving up work. She said she hopes to start volunteering at Marian -- doing laundry.
To this day, Ms. Dias admitted with a sense of humor, cleaning is not exactly her favorite activity.
When asked her secret to keeping house, she with a laugh, "I'd like to lock the door, run away, and not even look at it!"
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