Whiteford Housekeeper Betty Beaver (left) washes the bathroom in silence, squirting glass cleaner on mirrors, brushing the insides of toilets, and mopping the yellow tile floor. The room is filled with the overpowering smell of antiseptic cleaning fluids.

With one day left until retirement, it’s business as usual for the white-haired sweet-smiling woman who has been a fixture in the residence hall for 15 years.

“I’ll miss the kids the most,” she says. “It feels like they are my own kids. I tell them, ‘If you need to talk, just talk to me. If you need to cry, you can cry on my shoulder.’”

She’s been working full time since the age of 16, and hasn’t missed a day of work since she came to McDaniel. Building Services Coordinator Melvin Whelan says he doesn’t know what he’ll do when she leaves.

“I put her in Whiteford 15 years ago and I haven’t worried about Whiteford in 15 years,” he says. “I get compliments all the time from students and even their parents.”

With her co-worker Debbie Brown, she has collected thank-you cards and letters for years, and they line the wall in the janitor’s closet. Several of them are fragile from being touched, read, and loved for more than a decade.

Her favorite is a poem written by students after a big party. It reads, in part:

“They sanitized the lavatory,
They wiped the sinks,
Don’t know how they survived,
‘Cause the bathroom sure stinks.”

Every day 29 showers, 29 toilets, and seven water fountains await. Over the years, she has learned secrets to cleaning-up after college students. She puts newspapers at the bottom of trash bags to absorb moisture and smell, and covers a broom with a rag to reach spots that are too high. Despite the physical labor, she loves the job.

“We’re always happy, always cutting-up. Time goes fast for us.”

After a day on her feet, it is time to relax with Floyd, her husband of 43 years. Her plans for retirement include spending time with family and friends and catching up on her favorite soap operas, “The Young and the Restless” and “General Hospital.”

Put your feet up, Betty. You’ve earned it.