“I won’t miss the cleaning – I’ll miss the kids”
Southern Virginia housekeeper Alice Henson retires after two decades of friendship and service
As the campus population trickled away during finals week last month, Alice Henson was approaching a much more permanent goodbye. On Friday, December 15th, she retired from her position as a housekeeper for Southern Virginia.
“I’m happy, but I’m sad. I mean, it’s 19 years,” she said that morning as she reflected on her career. “I won’t miss the cleaning – I’ll miss the kids.”
She won’t be going far, though. She lives less than three miles from campus, and her roots run deep in the Shenandoah Valley. She was raised just outside the Buena Vista city limits and she’s a proud descendent of Peter Mason, a convert of Elder J. Golden Kimball and one of the first people in the area to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
She lost both parents by the time she was 16, but her demeanor and work don’t suggest such a difficult past. She’s upbeat, generous, and determined; the Knight Guest House she took care of until last month had a clean, warm aura that almost brought to mind the interior of an LDS temple. When she paused for an interview on her last day, she was ironing pillowcases.
She wasn’t always a housekeeper, though. She was working in childcare when her neighbor told her about the opening at Southern Virginia College. She interviewed with the supervisor, Richard Wall (“he always called me ‘Sis,’” she recalled), and started right away.
“I felt comfortable the first day. I was scared to death, but I was comfortable,” she said. She was initially assigned to the female dorms on the second, third, and fourth floors of Main Hall. It was difficult work, but she quickly made the best of it.
“I got to know the girls. We had a ball,” she recalled with a smile. “I would do my work, but we laughed and we talked.”
At first, she was struck by how ideal their lives seemed. “I thought they were perfect. I was thinking they [had] perfect families,” she said.
She soon discovered that wasn’t the case. “As time went on, they would come to me and open up about problems,” she explained. “They struggled with divorces and depression just like everybody else.”
Over the next two decades, “Mama Alice” became a friend and confidant to generations of Southern Virginia students. “I would always tell them, ‘If my son was away, I’d want someone to take care of him,” she said.
She meant it too, often going above and beyond by hanging curtains, fixing bulletin boards, painting radiators, baking birthday cakes for residents and bringing in candy at Christmastime.
“That’s what life is all about,” she said. “Making people happy, and doing things for people. And they’re going to make messes. I’m sorry, but this is college.”
She loved to joke on the job as well. She remembers when one student, Gary, invited her to the LDS Church’s General Conference. “I said, ‘Why, are you one of them old Mormons?’ He said, ‘Well — uh…’ (his face was just red), and I said, ‘That’s ok, I’m one too,’” she recalled with a laugh.
As she reflected on her time at the university, her mind seemed to wander over the decades and countless relationships. “I have met so many kids. Oh my gosh, so many kids. But I’ve loved them. I’ve tried to take care of them,” she said.
Whether they were students, coworkers, coaches, or professors though, Henson became a fast friend. When she talks about them, she beams. She starts her Christmas shopping in September – the gift giving always goes beyond her family.
She’s felt love and support from the Southern Virginia community in return. She quit school when she was in 8th grade to help with her mother’s struggling health, and when she earned her GED with her sister and coworker Lou Ramsey, the University put on a graduation ceremony. The school choir even performed “Oh Shenandoah” for the occasion.
She felt that support again when her husband of 39 years, Ralph Henson, passed away in 2009. After he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, her boss was flexible with her schedule so that she could go with him to chemotherapy appointments. When she needed to step away from work, she was told to take as much time as she needed.
“It’s like it’s one great big family. Everybody’s struggling in some way or another,” she said, summing up her time at the University. “I think that I was placed here for a reason.”
She wanted to retire to have more time with her grandchildren, but the timing came down to prayer. She struggled over whether to leave last year, but, as she confided to her coworker Antoinette Erekson at the time, “It [wasn’t] right.”
After finishing her last shift on December 15th, she went to a Christmas party for faculty, staff, and administration where she was recognized with a twenty-year pin and a standing ovation.
In a conversation last week, Alice said she’s busier than when she was working, but she likes it better. She doesn’t have to wake up at 4 a.m. for a shift anymore. She spends her time with her grandchildren, Sydney and Bradley Henson, and cleans for a couple family members and friends on the side.
“I love this thing called retirement,” she said.
Corrections:
-this article originally stated the Ralph Henson passed away in 2008.
-the caption to the graduation photo originally read “Greaves” instead of “Ramsey”
Last updated on January 27, 2018
