Maryanne Ratekin appreciates her job as secretary at Main Street Christian Church for several reasons, but one advantage is getting to know people in the community.

When she felt the need for a job outside the home to help pay medical expenses for her mother, Maryanne took the advice of neighbor Katie Blair Burkhardt and applied for the church position.

“I needed an extra job that I could still be there for my kids and still take Mom to all her appointments,” Ratekin explained. “I wasn’t so convinced that they would consider me since I’d been a stay at home mom for the last seven and one-half years. I thought, ‘I’ve not been working for so long they’re never going to hire me,’ but they did.”

The job didn’t fit her preconceived concept.

“It wasn’t what I expected at all. I had this image in my mind and that was cemented a little bit when I came for my interview and there were three other ladies here and they were all 50-somethings in their perfect church secretary outfits,” Maryanne recalled. “I was thinking ‘I’m not going to fit in.’ But it’s been so different. Everybody has been so warm and welcoming. I didn’t grow up here so I don’t know very many people but everyone’s really made me feel welcome and I think that it’s actually been really good for me because I’ve met and made so many new friends here in town, people that I never would’ve been exposed to.”

Although she spent her younger years as a self-described “Army brat” Maryanne is glad to call Rushville home now. When asked about staying in one city she responded she liked living here very much.

“I hope I never have to move again,” she exclaimed.

“All of my brothers and sisters were born all across the country,” she remarked. “I was actually born in Ft. Bragg, not in the city next door but actually in Ft. Bragg.”

One of her two sisters was born in Hawaii and one of her three brothers was born in Tacoma. The family was stationed in Germany too. According to Ratekin, her older brothers and sisters didn’t enjoy changing schools every other year but did appreciate seeing the different places they lived. She’s the youngest girl and second youngest child.

Her parents divorced when she was young and she moved with her siblings and mother, Gwen Vigeant to Washington state.

“She was a single mom with six kids. She had her hands full. She set a great example for all of us,” Maryanne said proudly.

Maryanne, her mother and one brother moved to Jennings County and the youngest daughter of the family completed her junior and senior years there.

“My oldest sister had the first grandbabies and her husband was originally from Indiana,” Maryanne noted, adding that her mother decided she wasn’t going to miss the grandchildren growing up.

Gwen was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis in 2001; that was changed to progressive in 2006. A brother had been staying with their mother but when he got married Gwen let the newlyweds start their new life without his mother living in the same house.

“We were in the process of moving to Rushville and we just started shopping for a house that would suit all of us and we found one, thank goodness,” Maryanne reflected. “So for the last three years she’s been living with us. She doesn’t drive anymore so I take her to all her appointments and everything but we make it work.