Lucy A. Merrick, 104, Phila. nurse, teacher, activist
Lucy Anna Merrick, 104, of Germantown, a former nurse, Bible school teacher, and elder rights advocate, died Wednesday, May 25, of heart disease at Visiting Nurse Association Hospice in East Falls.
Lucy Anna Merrick, 104, of Germantown, a former nurse, Bible school teacher, and elder rights advocate, died Wednesday, May 25, of heart disease at Visiting Nurse Association Hospice in East Falls.
On May 16, she was admitted to Hahnemann University Hospital, and four days later she was transferred to the hospice.
Mrs. Merrick was born in West Philadelphia in 1912 - a year when suffragettes paraded in New York, and Arizona became the 48th state in the union. The youngest child of Thomas and Margaret Draine, she grew up with four siblings and graduated from Overbrook High School.
She married David Merrick, a mail carrier two years her senior and a fellow Philadelphia native, on Sept. 5, 1936. They soon moved to Washington, where Mrs. Merrick studied nursing at Freedmen's Hospital, then the primary teaching hospital of the Howard University College of Medicine. In Washington, the couple had the first three of their four children.
In 1943, the family returned to Philadelphia, where, alongside raising her children, Mrs. Merrick worked part-time as a nurse at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She was also an active member of Overbrook's African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, where she participated in various guilds and taught Bible school.
Mrs. Merrick remained active in the community - especially in matters concerning seniors - even after she retired from nursing at 65, said daughter Jeanne Brown. Being active and going where she was needed was her nature, her daughter said.
"She was just interested in trying to make life better for everyone," Brown said. "She taught me that things could be improved when groups worked together toward one cause."
For about a decade after retirement, her daughter said, Mrs. Merrick was a member of the Action Alliance for Senior Citizens, a Philadelphia-based organization, through which she often traveled to Harrisburg, advocating against SEPTA rate hikes that would affect seniors and working to improve health care.
Her children remember her as someone who remained lively and full of energy until the last days of her life.
"She was at every graduation ceremony," Brown said.
After she was taken to Hahnemann, her son, David Merrick Jr., recalled, one big concern for her was that it might stop her from attending the Mayor's Centenarian Celebration, an annual luncheon meant to honor Philadelphia's oldest residents, which was held on May 19.
"On the first day in the hospital, she was thinking about how she was going to go to that luncheon, and thinking about what she should wear," Merrick recalled with a laugh.
In addition to her son and daughter, Mrs. Merrick is survived by another daughter, Wanda Numen; 10 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and two nephews. Her husband died in 1965. A daughter, Constance Carter, also died previously.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, June 9, at Wood Funeral Home, 5537 W. Girard Ave., in the Carroll Park section of West Philadelphia.
Condolences may be sent to www.cwoodfh.com.
215-854-4524@janakichadha