BETTY PHELPS: SRHS retirees remain peaceful, passionate

I am a Singing River Health System retiree, and I am only speaking for myself.

I wish to remind Jackson County residents of our cause against SRHS. Because of the attempts to terminate or decrease our retirement by SRHS, I wish to tell the retirees' story from my point of view.

When retirees learned SRHS was trying to terminate our retirement fund without notifying us, we were dismayed. Because of the swift action of one of the retirees, that action was stopped.

So what to do? We decided we would fight. We would not be victims! We decided to picket. We are not asking for the moon, the stars and Pluto, too. We simply want 100 percent of our retirement paid to us as it was promised. Period.

We are dignified and peaceful warriors. We smile and wave to you in front of the hospitals. We traveled to the state Legislature three times to petition them for our cause. We were able to get SB2407 passed with the help of Sen. Wiggins, Rep. Busby and others. Yes, we are peaceful, but we are warriors nonetheless.

SRHS has many high-priced lawyers, but we have two. They are outstanding heroes as well.

Many people come to help us and wish us well. Thank you all so much, and I hope our communities see us as heroes, too.

Thanks to all retirees. You are beautiful in my eyes. I will always remember you and all who have helped us in so many ways.

Our motto is "Do the right thing." In this case, the right thing can be summed up by saying, "A promise made is a promise kept."

The new year is coming, and I pray we can make it a better day.

BETTY PHELPS

Ocean Springs

This story was originally published December 26, 2015 at 7:31 PM with the headline "BETTY PHELPS: SRHS retirees remain peaceful, passionate ."