INDEPENDENCE TWP. — Earlier this year, longtime resident Merelyn Mallett celebrated her 90th birthday.
Mallett, a native to Ontario, Canada, moved to Kingfisher Lane in Independence Township in 1969 with her husband Don who was a draftsman for General Motors.
Before coming to America, they had three children already. In Canada, Merelyn had received a nursing degree but the registration wouldn’t transfer for use in Michigan, opening up a new pathway for her – stretch and sew.
“I had graduated in 1956, and I thought, there’s no way I’m going to go back and start studying,” Mallett said. “So, that was the end of my nursing career. But, I’ve always loved sewing and at the time, stretch and sew was just coming on board. So, I had taken a class with one of my neighbors. We both loved it, so I took the training for stretch and sew for a number of years until about 1980 when people didn’t really want polyester double knits anymore.”
Mallett remembers the culture shock she experienced when coming to the states post Detroit Riots, explaining that in Canada at the time, even the police didn’t carry guns.
Over the years, Mallett has created a community around every turn starting with her neighbors on Kingfisher Lane who she and her children became close with.
“None of the women who were neighbors on our street worked. They were all stay at home moms and the kids all played in the street. There was no social media, there were no cell phones, no computers, none of that. So, all the boys on the street would walk across Maybee Road and go over to the cemetery and play football because there was nobody around to bother them. Things were so so different,” Mallett said.
Mallett also spoke highly of her Saturday Singles group of single women she’s met who still get together semi-regularly to see movies, get dinner and socialize. The group was started by Mallett shortly after her husband passed away while she was doing water aerobics.
“I said to a couple of people, ‘does anybody remember the old song Saturday Night (is the Loneliest Night of the Week)?’ and two or three of them, who were also widows, said yes and I said, ‘I’m fine, Saturday night isn’t a night I would normally go out with girlfriends,’ and they said if I plan something they would be there,” Mallett said. “So, I started the group and we’re still going. At first, there were five of us and we used to go to a movie and stop somewhere after dinner.”
Despite the pandemic throwing a wrench in what the group had grown accustomed to, the group has only continued to grow and now boasts a roster of 25 women.
When asked what a secret to a long life is, Mallett is relatively practical, noting that the importance of good genetics cannot be overstated but also maintaining a good attitude.
— Megan Kelley