(This week The Columbian-Progress spotlights Columbia Primary School Crossing Guard and Southern Touch Homemaker & Comfort Agency home health care aid LaTasha Magee.)
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born in Hattiesburg June 20, 1974.
Q: Where did you attend school?
A: I attended school in the Columbia School District.
Q: Where all have you lived?
A: I’ve lived here all my life.
Q: Where do you work? Tell us about your job/company.
A: I’m the crossing guard at West Avenue and Dale Street. I look over making sure the kids get across the street safely, the buses come through safely and no one has an accident. I also do home health care for Southern Touch Homemaker & Comfort Agency. I take care of the elderly and disabled. I go to their homes and do what they need personally, like if they need bathing or something like that. I take care of them as if they were in a home.
Q: What led you to your profession?
A: I started off working at Pioneer Aerospace. But I love taking care of people and love to give. I was helping someone out one day, and they said, “We need you at our company,” and I’ve been doing it ever since. I try to take care of my patients like I’m taking care of my own grandparents. It’s the same with the kids. I take care of them like they are my own. I’m just the type of person who likes to give and make people happy.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: The smiles and knowing that they are happy, good and trust me. I like knowing families trust me with their loved ones.
Q: Who is the person who has been most influential in your life?
A: My grandmother, Modenia Franklin, and Ms. Ernestine James. Ms. James, after my grandmother passed, was the mother of our neighborhood. She taught for over 40 years at West Marion. They instilled in me to be the strong-willed woman I am today: To let your word be your word, be honest and respectful, whatever job you have make sure you do your job from your heart and don’t look at the pay of it.
Q: If you could relive or change one day from your life, which day would you choose?
A: A day that I would change would be when my grandmother left me. That was the hardest moment of my life. She wasn’t just a grandmother; she was my best friend. I don’t want to be selfish with God, but I would like to have just a little bit longer with her.
Q: What is your spouse’s name? What does he do for a living?
A: Patrick Armstrong. He works at Quality Welding.
Q: Do you have children?
A: I have four: Cedrick, Shamyah, Sadarion and Savarion.
Q: If you could have anything for your last meal on earth, what would it be?
A: Snow crabs.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
A: I want to go to Paris. It just seems like it’s so beautiful and peaceful.
Q: What hobbies do you like to do in your spare time?
A: I love to be with my family, meaning my mother and father, Mozell and Steven Lowe, and have cookouts. I work a lot of the time, but when I get an off day I just want to spend it with my kids and my family.
Q: What do you enjoy about living and working in Columbia and Marion County?
A: I love the people. People say it’s dead around here but not to me. Everyone who I run into is nice and friendly, and we’re more of a home, close-knit county that looks out for each other and tries to help each other.
Q: If you could have lunch with anyone from your life or history, who would it be and why?
A: I would love to have lunch with my oldest son, Cedrick. He’s 21 and doesn’t have much time for me anymore. I would love to have lunch with my son and all my kids.
Q: Would you rather read a good book or watch a good movie and why?
A: I like to read now that I got older, so I’d rather a good book.
Q: What moment in your life has had the biggest impact on you?
A: When I accepted Jesus Christ. It changed my life for the better. That was the biggest impact on me.
Q: What would be the No. 1 thing on your Bucket List?
A: I would love to travel to all 50 states. I love to travel.
Q: If you could describe your morals in three words, what would they be?
A: Honesty, respect and faithfulness. My kids ask me, “Aren’t honesty and faithfulness the same thing?” It’s not. You have to be honest, but your faithfulness is being dedicated to something and give it your all. Those are the three Ms. Ernestine would always tell me about, and I’ve tried to pass that along to my children.
Q: How would you like to be remembered?
A: I would like to be remembered as a good, caring person. That whoever I came into contact with I impacted their life in some kind of way, if it’s nothing but a word, a hug or a smile. I want them to remember me like that.
— Joshua Campbell
