“What’s the point of being retired if you can’t have some flexibility?” Penny Aguirre stated during a recent conversation. She moved back to Magee in spring of 2022 to help her mom, Lyndel Cockrell, who, turned 80 on her last birthday.
Part of the move included a new job as zoning administrator for the City of Magee.
Aguirre grew up in Magee and graduated from Magee High School in 1981. She received numerous degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi including master’s degrees in English and education. After graduation she attended a job fair on the USM campus that featured several large urban school districts like Miami and Dallas.
“I wanted to move to Texas. My mother was always a tyrant about the TV because it was her TV. If you didn’t want to watch what she was watching then you needed to go outside or to another room. She always watched the TV show Dallas. You know, J.R. Ewing, Sue Ellen…and I just thought, ‘That’s the greatest place ever!’ I thought it was magical; it seemed magical but I had no clue – none!”
In 1986 at 22 years old Aguirre went to work for the Dallas Independent School District, one of the largest in the nation. She confesses she had no idea what she was getting into, driving in a city, for example. Aguirre had difficulty driving in Jackson but adapted quickly once in Dallas or, as she states “you’ll get run over!”
Aguirre loved Dallas and she loved her students. But it was an eye opening experience. “It is an urban school district; it was a very different situation for me. I was one of the only white faces there. Everybody on my roll was like “Jesus” and “Mary” and then I figured out it was “Jesus” (Hay-Soos) and “Maria.” I learned to speak a little Spanish. I met some wonderful people. A lot of my students are principals and teachers now.”
She went on to explain that some of her students were the first to ever finish high school in their families or go on to college. Aguirre is proud of their accomplishments and shared examples a student she stays in touch with, Josie. Aguirre pushed Josie beyond her comfort zone – there was so much potential. She is now a federal marshal and guards the President of the United States.
When she was pregnant with her first child, daughter Cheryl, Aguirre left Adamson High School, the oldest school in Dallas, and moved to Plano, TX, to teach because of safety concerns. She explained that the school grounds were fairly safe during the week; however, nearly every Monday morning she was sweeping up glass from the broken windows of her portable classroom.
Aguirre retired in 2018 from teaching high school classes but continued teaching college level courses that she also loved. Then Covid hit in 2020, and classes went virtual. It was difficult but she did what was necessary to see her students succeed.
As time went on her mother began having various types of difficulties. Aguirre’s two sisters were doing what they could to help Cockrell here at home, but both worked full time jobs and had their own familial commitments. “It just didn’t make sense for me to stay over there (Texas) when both of my children were somewhere else. It was a window of opportunity and a big leap because my life has been there for decades. I’ve always come home but that became home. I had my friends, my teaching community, my children grew up there. But it wasn’t a hard decision to make. So many of my friends had lost their parents and I just thought I don’t want to go home for that reason.
I started looking for a house here, the perfect house for us. It wasn’t perfect; it’s still not perfect. No house is perfect is what I’ve learned.”
The big leap included purchasing their current home sight unseen. After hearing about the house and its location, however, Aguirre knew it was the house for her mother at this stage of life. It is near Cockrell’s home church location and has the added bonus of having her great-grandchildren live right across the parking lot from the church.
She readily admits, “Home renovation is not for the faint of heart! My poor mother did all that by herself because I was in Texas. It’s amazing what it looks like now compared to what it looked like then.”
In addition, Cockrell handled the house closing since Aguirre was still in Texas at that time. “My mom’s a caretaker. She does that. It’s kind of hard to take care of her because she’s always trying to outdo me,” said Aguirre.“I thought I would have some withdrawals but it turned out that I didn’t even realize how exhausted I was. Always being in a place where things are always at your fingertips means you can extend your work hours. I always tend to do that anyway.
“What I found interesting when I came back – at first I was driving all over the place. You can’t even go to Kroger unless you drive an hour. What I found was looking at the trees and the greenery in the state, I found it very healing. It surprised me.”
