Next time you go to the Maplewood Theater, see if you can find 87-year-old Erika Weidner, who is a ticket-taker and among those in this week's Wall Street Journal story on working seniors:
After retiring in 2003, 87-year-old Erika Weidner recently landed a job collecting tickets at a movie theater in Maplewood, N.J., making $7.25 an hour, four hours a week. She wants a second job but worries about her stamina.
Ms. Weidner grew up in a "cold-water flat" in nearby Millburn before moving to Los Angeles to work for TV and movie writers. She later sold crypts for Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries in Southern California and thought the $28,000 she set aside in the company's retirement-savings plan would be enough, along with Social Security."I'm just going to see how it works out," said Ms. Weidner, a former secretary, saleswoman and professional singer. "If I have to work in the daytime, as well as night, I don't know what effect that will have on me physically."
But the money went fast—to support a late sister and for medical expenses not covered by Medicare during a battle with colon cancer in 2010.
These days, Ms. Weidner's rent devours all but $31 of her $1,566 monthly Social Security check. She said she "allows" herself $15 a month for gas.
In her youth, Ms. Weidner dreamed of being an opera singer and spent her spare money on singing lessons.
Her younger sister, a professional dancer who followed her to California, persuaded Ms. Weidner to move back to New Jersey in the early 1990s. She worked as a secretary for a decade until her last employer retired.
After her sister died in 2008, it got harder for Ms. Weidner to keep up with the bills without her sister's $500-a-month contribution. The two women, who never married, had lived together for years.
Ms. Weidner recently started getting food stamps. Her brother, a retired teacher, buys food for her three cats. While walking in downtown Maplewood last month, she saw a "Help Wanted" sign at the theater and was hired several days later.
Ms. Weidner enjoys the job though she didn't like having to pay for her own uniform: a black turtleneck, shoes and shirt. She said she would like to work longer hours but the theater has only one showing the nights she works.
Ms. Weidner reminisced about her years working in Hollywood and would prefer a typing job.
She recalled welcoming actor Robert Redford into a studio office. She asked Mr. Redford to remove his sunglasses so she could see his "beautiful eyes in person," she recalled. He did.
For now, Ms. Weidner is brushing up her secretarial skills by helping type her brother's memoirs. She said she was keeping her eye out for more "help wanted" signs.
"Even if it's $5 an hour," she said, "it will be good."
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