Some people, upon reaching the age of 80, would be inclined to look back over their eight decades of life, reminiscing about days gone by.
Indianapolis resident Virginia Kersey celebrated her 80th birthday last month, and she has plenty to look back on: earning a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees, a storied career with positions at Indianapolis Public Schools and Indiana University, a long-running column in the Indianapolis Recorder’s religion section, the founding of a state-funded substance abuse program for minority women, a deep involvement in the church, myriad involvements in the local community … the list goes on and on.
But looking back is not Kersey’s style. Instead, she has her sights set on the future.
“The Lord let me know in my spirit, ‘There’s still some more I have for you to do,’” she said. “If I’m taking my dad’s pathway, I’ve got about 20 more years.”
Kersey said, more specifically, she’s being driven to work with other seniors, women in particular. Exactly how the mission will manifest remains to be seen, but Kersey said she’s letting one phrase shape the way: “Where do we go from here?”
Kersey said our society has a tendency to overlook the older population, but she envisions harnessing the experience and wisdom of seniors in the community to uplift others.
“You’ve got a lot of strong women like myself who are educated, retired, strong, they’re not sick. Are you going to let all that experience go to waste? You take that and redirect it for today’s needs,” she said. “This is a population that maybe feels like they don’t have anything else to do. That’s where I want to go from here.”
This new endeavor is right in line with Kersey’s M.O.; she has dedicated her life to reaching and teaching.
“My main goal is to see others accomplish. There is a pathway for everyone,” she said.
Kersey’s Recorder column, titled “Church World Today,” was just one way she set out to reach and teach. She said she proposed the column after being disappointed with the paper’s coverage of the broad topic of religion.
“I wouldn’t just put ‘Church having chicken dinner,’ I would go broader than that,” she said. “(My goal) was to express what was going on in the broader system than Indianapolis. I thought that very important, because it was a learning tool for the Black community. We already knew about having church services, but we needed more than that.”
Kersey said she got lots of positive feedback from the community about her column, but she explained with humility that she was just doing what needed to be done.
Kersey shared several stories about times when she was taken aback by others’ feedback.
Upon retirement from her role at IUPUI, the dean slipped a $1,000 check into her hand. She was shocked.
“A lot of times, you don’t get that; you get a nice letter. I said, ‘Lord, what did I do?’ I’m just being Ginny. I’m just being me.”
In another instance, a young man impacted by Kersey’s work at IPS came back to talk with students. He, too, gave Kersey a monetary thank you, and he told her she’d had as much impact on his life as his mother and grandmother.
And at her 80th birthday celebration last month, friends and family were able to show Kersey what she’s meant to them.
“Sometimes you don’t know you’ve impressed people in certain ways. … I got to really find out how I did impress some people. It was really amazing.”
Through all this, Kersey said, she’s just been doing what she was raised to do.
“Sharing has always been a positive part of my character. … I’m just doing what I was raised to do, so how is that different from anyone else? I was raised to give.”
Kersey’s father was a pastor, and in addition to seeing his example, the family frequently hosted traveling church leaders in their home.
“The dinner table was my second classroom. When people came and stayed with us, you’d hear a lot about them. We learned to serve because of the people we let in our home,” she said.
Even after her father retired, he continued to embrace his leadership role. Kersey said she moved in with her father after her mother died, and he continued to meet with people who came to him for guidance.
Much in the same way, Kersey — who explains with a chuckle that she’s retired (and un-retired) three times — is setting out to provide that guidance, likening herself to the counselor Deborah in the Book of Judges.
Kersey has been contacting pastors’ wives and other women in the community to see who will join her in her latest mission, which she hopes to launch in June.
“I want to take these women and fold them into the flow of what’s needed now. Get in here, I’m gonna shut the door, and you can use what you have, what God’s given you. They’re gonna feel their self-worth so strong. Their awareness is going to rise.
“How many Deborahs do I have?”
