South Shore snowbird campaigns to help 92-year-old Florida woman stop working

A woman in Chateauguay on Montreal’s South Shore spends her winters in Florida and has started a fundraiser to help a store employee retire.

After a simple shopping trip, she discovered that a woman was still working at 92 years old, and it turned into a life-changing moment.

“I said to her, ‘Good for you to still be working at your age,’ and that’s when she said, ‘I’m 92. I don’t want to be working,’” said snowbird April Steele.

For the past four years, Muriel Ann Connick has been working at the Burlington Coat Store in Pompano Beach, Florida.

She’s on her feet for around five hours a day, as her social security was not enough to cover the bills, and, because she had to work, her food stamp allowance was cut.

Steele posted about her encounter with Connick online.

“I didn’t know it until my grandson called me and told me. I said, ‘Facebook. How do I get on there?’” said Connick.

The average retirement age in Florida is 64 years, and it’s estimated that it takes $67,000 USD per year to be comfortable.

That is a far cry from what Connick is making.

“My mother lived to 96, [and] I could never have imagined her having to work the last 30 years of her life,” said Steele.

The response to Connick’s story was overwhelming as a GoFundMe campaign surpassed the $10,000 goal -- tenfold.

Local contractors also contacted her to fix up her aging mobile home.

“I can’t believe that everybody wants to help me. It’s really something. I’m so happy,” said Connick.

Steele has spent the last four winters south of the border in Florida.

“I’ve never wanted to bring politics into this part of it, but it’s just about.... we’re just people caring for people. A border has nothing to do with it,” she said.

“I don’t know what I would have done without them. I’d still be working. Trying to work anyway,” said Connick.