Goldsmith greets nearly everyone with a smile as they pass through Stokes Hall. (Photo by Andrew Rowan ’19 / Editor-in-Chief and Fox Tracks Executive Producer)

 

Behind a tall wooden desk in Stokes Hall, surrounded by flowers — her favorite — sits morning Front Desk Coordinator Charmaine Goldsmith.

 

“Let’s see some smiles,” Goldsmith told a group of Middle School students who were walking in through the front door. Goldsmith arrives around 7:00 a.m., which means she is often the first person students, faculty, staff, and parents see as they arrive in the building for the morning. She is constantly up, talking to people about their day, and wishing people a great upcoming day.

 

On her desk sits a 12” x 5” purple chalkboard where she often writes uplifting messages about the “light” she feels in the community.

 

“We all have some sort of light. If I didn’t have [other faculty members guarding my back], I wouldn’t be able to do my job. They pass on some light to me. I hope to pass some of my light to whomever I interact with [in Stokes Hall],” said Goldsmith.

 

Goldsmith’s accomplished career prior to coming to Moorestown Friends started at the John F. Kennedy Behavioral Health Center, where she was the secretary for a staff of 30 psychiatrists and psychologists.

 

“I dealt with patients who were decompensating, a process that happens when a person’s usual ways of coping are no longer working, if their doctor went on vacation. I had to assure them that they were going to be taken care of and that their doctor was coming back,” said Goldsmith.

 

Her boss, the Director of the JFK Behavioral Health Center, left and went to the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation, where she was invited to follow after testing to become a clerk in housing counseling. In this position, Goldsmith was responsible for creating credit reports for first time home buyers. “I was heavily involved with the community,” she said.

 

However, she took a volunteered layoff from this position due to her mother’s battle with cancer.

 

“I went to the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) and took a course on medical terminology and computers. … Having the medical background knowledge made the caregiving easier [and the conversations with the medical staff treating my mother easier],” said Goldsmith. Unfortunately, her mother did succumb to stomach cancer after battling it for 3 years.  

 

When she was visiting her old co-workers who had switched jobs and were working at the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority building (RDA), a department in charge of major city building proposals, she was asked to take a typing test. She was the only one to pass the test due to her computer class at CCP. She was hired as the secretary for the Director of Finance. She was a secretary for the meetings, but one day the executive director’s secretary went on vacation, so she covered. “When my boss came back from her vacation, I told her I was covering the front office, and she said ‘They’re going to take you from me,’ and I said ‘I’m not going anywhere,” Goldsmith told WordsWorth.

 

Goldsmith did end up working for the assistant executive director at the RDA, where she said she “learned so much about the city, so much about the politics, and that you have a voice as a resident but there are ways to be heard.” After working at the front desk for about 3 years, she was laid off and sent to work in Human Resources. In this position, she unknowingly wrote the layoff letters that she would eventually receive.

 

She was then laid off again and sent back to work at the same front office, this time working for the director of operations. When the new mayor came in after Ed Rendell, Mayor Street, Goldsmith expected to be laid off. To her surprise, she was requested by the deputy director of the city to be her secretary. Afterward, she transitioned to work for the mayor’s office for education. Goldsmith stayed there through Mayor Nutter and retired under him.

 

From 2009-2013 she served as the caregiver for her father, who had Alzheimer’s. She found Moorestown Friends when Michelle Horton was looking for someone to be a substitute for the Front Desk.

 

“My past journey has prepared me for my second chapter in life,” said Goldsmith, “I’m retired, so I wanted to go back to work, but I didn’t want to work hard. I enjoy what I do here.” Before becoming front desk coordinator after Horton retired, Goldsmith was a four-month substitute in the business office for Rose Frola.

 

Originally from Lancaster, but raised in Philadelphia, Goldsmith said the move “traumatized” her. Because her family is interracial, Goldsmith said she found it hard to adjust.

 

“I was not social like I am now.” Goldsmith described how her family would go back to Lancaster each week to “bring water from the springs because it tasted so much better [than Philadelphia water].”

 

Goldsmith and her husband, Robert, were neighborhood sweethearts who met in 10th grade. In November 2019, they will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

 

Goldsmith has no siblings but now has a large family. She has 5 children (ages 49, 48, 42, 39, and 35), 11 grandchildren (ages 27, 25, 23, 23, 22, 21, 18, 18, 14, 12, and 5), and 3 great-grandchildren (5, 2, 2). “My parents always wanted a large family, but they were only able to have me. I would just love to tell them everything that is happening.”

 

Her oldest son was an officer in the Kuwait War and Afghanistan War, and her youngest son served in the Iraq War. She described when her youngest son was on a special mission in Iraq. Goldsmith didn’t know exactly where her son was serving, but one day her youngest son called her middle son and said, “Tell mommy I’m ok.” Later that evening, Goldsmith heard on KYW that a member of her youngest son’s platoon had been taken as a prisoner of war.

 

Goldsmith wrote the story to FOX29, who featured the story on her oldest and youngest son, who were born on the same day, both in active service. “My oldest, who was an officer, said, ‘If anyone gets home, send my baby brother home,’ and that’s how we got him home.”

 

“My mother is my role model because she taught me it’s alright to be you even if people don’t accept you for you,” said Goldsmith, “She wasn’t a very verbal person, but she demonstrated her words.” Goldsmith talked about her mother’s saying that it’s what one does with their inner light that matters.

 

Goldsmith also cited her pastor, Jimmie A. Ellis III, for teaching her how to make her own happy after God gives her joy.

 

After leaving MFS for the day, Goldsmith goes home, cooks her husband dinner, and sits down to go over their days. Goldsmith loves Victorian masterpiece movies and is an avid gardener. Each year, she buys one flower that reminds her of one of her loved ones who have passed away. “When Spring comes it’s a happy and sad time, because I miss them but I am thinking about what flower I am going to get [in honor] of them,” explained Goldsmith.   

 

Finally, Goldsmith wants MFS students to know that they should “embrace change because [they] are the game changers. As they get ready to graduate, they should know that each one of them has something to offer to change the game with their light.”