Pat Devine

Pat Devine
Profile
November 25, 2008

A Righteous Path

Even in the midst of America’s current economic turmoil the average American has but a vague idea about the true meaning behind the phrase ‘scrimp and save’.
True economic depression is a state that exists only outside of the borders of the United States.
Majur Jok was born in small town called Manding in Africa’s largest nation, Sudan. There, he and his family experienced first hand hunger, disease, and the fear and brutality of civil war.
Now, as customers purchase gas and demand lotto tickets and cigarettes he continues to relay a childhood account through a thick Sudanese accent.
One time a soldier struck him in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle.
“For no reason he just hit me, says Jok, almost proudly.
Majur now works as a store manager for a local gas station. This is not his first American job however.
His last job was at the Marsh Furniture factor.
“I worked as a ‘part coordinator’. Basically, I inspected parts of furniture to make sure they were not defective.” Then he smiles, “We were the most polluting company in High Point.”
As a child, Majur endured bouts of starvation and literally had to walk tens of miles to go to school every day, which he did faithfully.
“Manding was a small industrial town, but not like a small town in the United States. There was no traffic. We did not have many cars…Transportation was usually a problem.”
His parents were “agriculturalists” says Majur. They raised wheat, vegetables and cattle. “My father loved cattle.”
His family life, however, was stressed by the ongoing civil war, a conflict that began in 1983 and lasted until 2005.
Almost 2 million civilians in southern Sudan (Manding is in the south) have been killed over the course of the civil war and about 4 million southern Sudanese have been forced to flee the country.
When Jok was six years old his parents sent him and his two brothers to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. They walked, along with a thousand other children and some women and old men, over one hundred miles to the neighboring country.
On the way there his group encountered wild animals including hyenas, lions and elephants. Some were attacked and mauled on the journey but no one was killed.
Life in the refugee camps, although mostly free from animal attack, was far from ideal. He and his brothers had problems with illness, and the Episcopal church he attended had no roof and housed thousands of people.
After years of focused schooling Majur graduated high school, and earned his way to the United States, where he hoped for a life with more opportunities.
He earned an associate’s degree in political science from Guilford Technical Community College, where he also studied history.
He has recently been accepted to the University of Georgia, and plans to attend next year to study public administration.
Majur Jok has walked a hard road, has seen true poverty and suffering, and has overcome it.
So scrimp, my fellow Americans, and save, but do not forget the starving and suffering multitudes, all over the globe, who face true economic depression. And also do not forget to dream for yourselves.
Just like Majur, you to can choose the path you walk; Even if it’s a hike.

Pat's New Blog

My research for our final project has taken off. I am currently doing research on music therapy applied to kids with behavioral disorders. I already have a great primary source lined up and have found a lot of research on the subject. It is an exiting field and it promises to be an interesting topic for my story.

A Job Not So Macabre

Pat Devine
Feature Writing
Word Count 783
November, 04
A Job Not So Macabre
Sechrest Funeral Service, located on East Lexington Ave. across the street from the High Point University intramural fields, is run by local manager and 37 year Sechrest employee Neil Whitaker.
After shaking hands with the Mr. Whitaker I sat down to ask him a few questions. But before I could get his name, or turn to a clean page in my notebook, he was questioning me, “Where are you from.”
“Virginia Beach”
“Oh really…I’m from south eastern North Carolina myself… Used to surf in Sandbridge (area in Virginia Beach) a lot when I was a kid.”
We had at least a 10 minute conversation about surf stories, old surfboards he had, surfboards my dad had, trips to Cape Hatteras, being a lifeguard in Wilmington, even a time when he was surfing near a navy base in Virginia, when target practice started for one of the battleships, “I thought we were under attack.”
I wasn’t here, however, to talk surfing or to share similar stories about my upbringing. I was there to do a feature story on a distinct, profound moment in the man’s career which I would try to recreate.
Then I realized this was it. This is what the man did every day of his life. He was treating me like a client.
I probably could have said any town and he would have an assemblage of anecdotes to cast my way. He was getting to know me better to make me feel comfortable; for him it must be like impulse. This is, after all, a huge part of his job.
“I find out where (the deceased) is from, what hobbies they had, what music they liked… I can go from bluegrass to Pavarotti”, he says proudly. If the person liked golf, “I’d love to bring their clubs to the visitation.”
He had to make me comfortable before he could get comfortable. Looking back it was obvious, but at the time, I was enthralled in the conversation.
I can imagine him sitting down with a recent widow as she goes over the financial side of a burial, or advising a family on the legal aspects involved in making a decision between cremation and burial; the smell of coffee and chocolate chip cookies lingering in the air.
“Nothing says relaxation like a cool bottle of water, a warm cup of coffee, or a (fresh made) Otis Spunkmeyer cookie.”
The warm aroma of mahogany, coffee and cookies, wafts through the building.
“Our rules are more stringent than the state’s laws”, he might announce reassuringly to the friend of a deceased man with no relatives around to claim the body or pay for funeral costs. He might say bluntly over a cup of joe, “Cremation gives you more options. We can hold the body for ‘X’ many days until it becomes a ward of the state… But you can always cremate later.”
The stranger feels at home in this place generally thought of with such a dark stigma.
The meeting room is cozy to be sure. The walls are a dark blue lined cream crown molding. A big white floral couch is accented by pictures of pink flowers and a deep aqua carpet.
He tells me, “it’s not about me, it’s about you (the client)… We sit in an open, comfortable and relaxed area to discuss arrangements.”
Mr. Whitaker might take the hand of an old widower whose only son has just died suddenly and who can’t make up his mind about what he should do for the funeral arrangements.
He changes the subject and talks of the man’s wife. He asks him about the circumstances of her death, the toll it took on him and his family, and how they recovered.
Then the conversation comes back to his son, and what made him who he was and what his legacy will be.
The man leans forward in one of the sky blue upholstered arm chairs and takes a sip of coffee.
They’ve been talking for an hour now, and Mr. Whitaker has not broken a sweat. He loves his job.
The elderly man puts the coffee mug back on the mahogany table. I think he ought to have a burial, just like his mother.
The resolution is made.
The man has made the decision, and the hardest part of Neil Whitaker’s job is over.
“Once (a client) makes a choice then that means…that they have made a separation. They don’t want to have to make that decision.”
Mr. Whitaker has been doing the same thing since he finished his second year at Wilmington Community College, and it is evident from speaking with him for what turned into a seemingly quick hour-long interview, that he knows his job well.
Says Whitaker, “This is what happens every day, in here.”

Jimmy Tomlin

I enjoyed the guest speaker we had on Tuesday. It was nice to see the way a local feature looks at a potential story, and how he deals with different types of interviews. Also he had some good points when it came to writing strategies, such as "coming full circle". It was very informative.