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Welcomed at Burroughs Wellcome At the age of 22, I got my first job. It was a tremendous challenge, because I was disabled. I was stricken with polio and meningitis at the age of 11 months old. I walk on crutches and wear a long left leg brace. I wanted to work even as a teenager. I first wanted to be a nurse. As I grew older I wanted to become a secretary, because I felt being in the administrative field would be better for me physically. I wanted to become a secretary like Lucille Ball. I attended the Greenville School of Commerce for Secretarial Science. It was a nine-month course, and I graduated with a diploma. The instructor guaranteed you employment if you completed the course. She would send you on interviews just before graduation. About two weeks before I graduated, she began to set up interviews for me. Within two days, I was hired. I really was looking forward to going on interviews and was disappointed that I was hired on the first one. But sometimes we don’t know what is best for us at that time. The job was with one of the finest companies in Greenville. Burroughs Wellcome Company hired me on Feb. 7, 1980. I worked there for 15 1/2 years. I began working in the shipping department as a Clerk II, then transferred to another department as a Clerk IV. This was the highest clerk you could become, and I performed administrative duties. Being disabled was less strenuous for me because Burroughs Wellcome accommodated the disabled in their workforce. I had to come out of the work world in 1995 because of problems with my right knee and surgery for arthritis. Also, post-polio syndrome caused me to experience some fatigue. Even though I did not get the Lucille Ball secretarial position, just being part of Burroughs Wellcome paid off for me, and to this day I am reaping the benefit from my first and only job. Patricia Brown,
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