THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609100140
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 80 lines
Goodwill Industries has truly become a sisters' act.
For the last 20 years, every donation that arrives at the nonprofit organization's Tidewater Drive warehouse must pass the scrutiny of either Louise Hood or Mae Billups.
Together, these two Norfolk women share the demands of running a thriving warehouse and overseeing dozens of disabled employees who sort, launder, repair, transport and price hundreds of donated household goods each day.
Hood is in charge of durable items - like appliances, furniture and glassware. Billups supervises clothing, linen and other textiles.
Hood's domain covers the southern part of the warehouse; Billups has control over the northern.
``We pretty much take care of the whole operation,'' said Billups, 53.
But there's no trace of sibling rivalry with these two. The sisters, who both have worked for Goodwill more than 30 years, are about as close-knit as sisters can get.
So close, friends and family usually refer to them by one name.
``Sometimes it's Louise Mae, or they might say Mae Louise, but it's always together,'' Hood said, laughing.
Each workday, the two sisters drive in to work together from their Ballentine homes, located just a block apart. They attend the same church, travel and shop together, share a common love for gardening and talk on the phone nearly every night.
``My daughter said she can't believe we can still find things to talk about after working together all day,'' Billups said. ``But we do.''
When they were single, the two women shared an apartment, and after getting married within a year of each other, lived in the same apartment building. Luckily, their husbands have become best friends.
From a family with 14 children, the sisters always have been close, even though separated by seven years of age.
``We've just always gotten along,'' said Hood, 60. ``Sometimes we disagree, but we always comes to terms. It's family. You just have to learn to forgive and agree.''
Hood left the tight-knit family's South Hill home for Norfolk first. In 1958, she took a temporary job as a sorter at Goodwill, filling in for a woman on maternity leave. She never left.
Seven years later, after a lonely six months living in New York City, Billups joined her sister in Norfolk. She, too, got a job at Goodwill.
Billups originally took the position as a way to earn local references for a nursing school application. But after a few months at Goodwill, she decided to leave nursing behind for a new career.
Since then, the two soft-spoken sisters each have held just about every job in the retail division of the organization - from pressers to cashiers. Combined, they have almost 70 years of tenure with the organization.
The two say they never have regretted staying with an organization dedicated to providing job training and placement services to people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. They say it's rewarding.
``In a way, working here is kind of like working as a nurse,'' Billups said. ``I'm fulfilled working with the handicapped. A lot of people we're able to get through to, but some we don't. It just takes patience, a lot of understanding and time. It makes me feel good to see people develop.''
Hood echoes that sentiment. She recalls one disabled teen who couldn't even tie his shoes when he arrived to work under her.
A few years later, ``He had his own apartment and was riding to work every day on the bus all the way from Suffolk on his own,'' she said. ``We've seen a lot of people like him become self-supporting. We like teaching them to work, to budget their bills and help them afford something they didn't think in the beginning they could.''
Billups added:
``Working here really teaches you to deal with all types of people with all different personalities and disabilities. You really grow here.''
The veteran of the two, Hood admits, after 38 years, she has considered moving on only once or twice but never seriously.
``I always said, `If they put me in with the junk, I'd quit,' but I didn't,'' she said. ``We've seen a lot of changes over the years, but once you get into it, you like it. This is someplace I look forward to coming every day.''
After all, it's family. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
For the last 20 years, Louise Hood, left, and her sister Mae Billups
have checked donations to Goodwill Industries. by CNB