CEDAR CITY — Jerry Griffin loves to wrap packages.
“I’m the queen of the wrappers,” she joked. “When I speak, they jump.”
The 92-year-old Cedar City woman has been a familiar sight at the gift-wrapping counter at Christensen’s department store every holiday season since 2008.
“I love coming in here because I talk to people and that keeps me busy,” Griffin told Cedar City News as she put aside the broom she’d been using to sweep around the counter.
“I wish I’d clean at home like I do in here,” she said.
Griffin, who sets her own work hours, said she usually works for a couple of hours at a time, two to three days a week, during the holiday season.
She recounted the day she first was hired 14 years ago when she was out on her daily walk and decided to go inside Christensen’s and asked to speak to store manager Ivan Peterson. This was when the store was located on the other side of Main Street, she noted.
“I was out walking because my husband had retired,” she said. “And I went in and I said to Ivan, ‘I want a job, and I just want to wrap packages.’
“And I said that if you don’t give me the job, you’re going to read in the paper that I’ve killed my husband, and I’ll be in jail,” she added with a laugh.
Peterson, who still manages the store currently, then asked her if she had a resume, Griffin recalled.
“I’ll go home and make one,” she said, adding that she simply wrote “self-employed” on each line of her work history.
“He hired me and I came in,” Griffin added, saying she was shown the gift-wrapping station and asked to demonstrate her skills.
Griffin’s years of experience as a floral designer kicked in as she quickly wrapped a package.
“’I don’t think I need to show you anymore,’” she recalls the employee at the counter telling her.
Even so, at first, Griffin said she didn’t think she’d last very long in her new assignment.
“I thought it was only going to last a week,” she said. “I said, ‘We can try it. And since I’ve always been self-employed, maybe I can’t work for you. But let’s try it for a week and see.’”
“Well, I’m still here,” she added with a laugh. “So it worked out.”
Griffin and her late husband Les Griffin were married in 1948. He died in 2020 after they’d been married for 72 years. Together, they raised two sons and a daughter while dividing their time between California, Nevada, Texas and Southern Utah, including frequent ski trips to Brian Head. Both were avid airplane pilots who also enjoyed racing boats, Jerry Griffin added.
Griffin’s daughter Sandi Hardy passed away earlier this year. One son, Steve Griffin, lives in Cedar City, while her other son Ralph Griffin lives in Colorado.
“I’d never lived alone,” she said. “It’s tough. I never realized it until I started living alone.”
Griffin said she looks forward to coming in and helping wrap Christmas presents, a service Christensen’s provides free to its customers.
“It gets me out of the house,” she said.
She then concluded her interview with Cedar City News by deftly wrapping a jigsaw puzzle that later made its way to a spot underneath the Christmas tree.
Griffin, who will turn 93 in February, said she plans to live at least another dozen years, so as to outlive an aunt of hers who died at age 104.
“So when I’m 105, come back, OK?” she joked.
Photo Gallery
Jerry Griffin works at the gift wrapping counter at Christensen's department store, Cedar City, Utah, Dec. 9, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News Jerry Griffin, 92, wraps a present at Christensen's department store, Cedar City, Utah, Dec. 9, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News Jerry Griffin talks to Christensen's store manager Ivan Peterson, Cedar City, Utah, Dec. 9, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News Jerry Griffin, 92, wraps a present at Christensen's department store, Cedar City, Utah, Dec. 9, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News Jerry Griffin, 92, wraps a present at Christensen's department store, Cedar City, Utah, Dec. 9, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News The gift wrapping counter at Christensen's department store, Cedar City, Utah, Dec. 9, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News Jerry Griffin, 92, wraps a present at Christensen's department store, Cedar City, Utah, Dec. 9, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News Jerry Griffin, 92, wraps a present at Christensen's department store, Cedar City, Utah, Dec. 9, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News Jerry Griffin, 92, wraps a present at Christensen's department store, Cedar City, Utah, Dec. 9, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News Jerry Griffin works at the gift wrapping counter at Christensen's department store, Cedar City, Utah, Dec. 9, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News
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