Ford: ‘Wonderful experience’ helping troubled youths

Detroit— Not many seniors in their early 70s would take on the job of working with first-time offenders, but Maureen Ford not only volunteered to do so, but is still doing it at 97.

And Ford, a member of SS. Peter & Paul Parish in North Branch, must be doing something right: only two of the 125 young people with whom she has worked have gotten into trouble with the law again.

As part of a diversion program of the Lapeer County Probation Department, nonviolent first-time offenders who admit their guilt can be referred to Ford, who meets with them for 16 one-hour sessions.

The offenders are mostly 17-, 18- or 19-year-olds, but some have been in their 20s and even as old as 40, and their crimes typically involve petty theft, shoplifting or alcohol offenses.

They are “not really bad kids, but they have made a mistake,” Ford said.

“When they come to me, they’re often in about as low spirits as they could go. They have to come to my house for an hour every week for four months,” she said.

One might suppose her job is to lecture the young offenders on right and wrong or the dangers of a life of crime, but that isn’t what it’s about.

“I’m just their friend,” Ford said.

“After one or two times, there’s nothing else to talk about,” she said. “I’m kind of a china painter, and so they have to paint a piece of china. And after one or two times doing that, they can almost smile at me sometimes.”

In the course of the china-painting sessions, the young offenders open up even more about themselves and their lives. “I’m kind of amazed at the things they tell me,” said Ford, who has worked with about as many males as females during the past quarter-century.

And nothing they tell her ever goes any further; Ford treats all their conversations as confidential.

If the youths finish painting the china piece before the sessions end, Ford says they fill the remaining sessions playing board games.

“When they walk out of my house at the end of the program, they walk out — shall I say — healed?” she said, adding that the court erases any record of their offense.

And they also walk out with the china piece they painted. “They’re so proud of it; they have done something probably nobody else they know has done. The boys usually give the piece to their girlfriend or to their mother,” Ford said.

Many who go through the program keep in touch with Ford as the years go by.

“These kids are almost like grandchildren when they leave, and would do almost anything for me. I get invited to their graduation parties and weddings, and they bring their babies to see me.”

Ford, who moved to North Branch after her husband died 38 years ago, acknowledges that working with the offenders can be time-consuming, but calls it “a wonderful experience.”

“I feel privileged to do it — that God has given me the opportunity. It keeps your mind alive to the world, and some of these children didn’t have anyone to care about them,” she said.

Her pastor, Fr. Rich Treml, praised Ford’s drive and charity.

“Her mind is sharp, and she comes to SS. Peter & Paul for Mass and for parish activities,” he said. “She also opens her home whenever we have visiting sisters or missionaries.”

In the end, Fr. Treml said, Ford “is just an amazing lady.”