Robin Guidicy was surprised he didn’t feel more devastated by the death of his mother, Jerry, until he analyzed his reaction.
“When someone dies, you’re sad about their future that is lost,” he said. “The things they didn’t get to do, all the missed chances and opportunities. But she lived so full a life!
In her 76 years, I can’t imagine anyone having done any more.”
Jerry Guidicy died May 6 following a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.
She was well known in the area as an educator, an entrepreneur, a musician, an athlete and “an all-around character,” according to her son.
But she was perhaps best known for her charitable work. She was a board member and volunteer with the Jefferson County Rescue Mission and helped found schools in Belize, Cuba and Jamaica.
Perhaps her most prominent quality was her ability to lead.
“Her ideas were the kind that changed the world,” said Bev Gansner of Festus, a close friend for more than 30 years. “She never let grass grow under her feet. She wouldn’t wait around for somebody else to decide what to do; she would take charge and get it done.”
For such a small woman – she stood barely 5 feet tall – Mrs. Guidicy was a force to be reckoned with.
“She would tell people, ‘This is what we’re going to do’ and she didn’t really give them an option,” Robin said.
His mother often traveled with Johnetta Wilds, a retired college professor.
“She called my mom a dreamer,” he said. “She said, ‘Jerry would see things, envision things I just couldn’t wrap my head around. And somehow, some way, it was going to happen.’”
Mrs. Guidicy grew up in Arkansas, the daughter of a professional baseball player who farmed cotton and soybeans during the off-season. A child of the Depression, she wore dresses made from potato sacks and grew up wanting her children to have more.
She played basketball in high school and college, and met her future husband, Roger, at Quonset Lanes bowling alley in Crystal City.
She taught in the Fox C-6 School District and her husband was an ironworker.
Robin and his brother, Jed, were taught self-sufficiency at a young age.
“They both had careers, and we had to learn to be independent,” Robin said. “Cook, wash clothes, iron, take care of things.”
Mrs. Guidicy was a whirlwind of activity, always on the go and always eager to try anything new.
“She bought a beauty school in Arnold that was virtually closed and within a few years, sold it with two dozen stylists,” Robin said. “She wanted to drive a school bus, so she got her commercial license at age 60. She decided she wanted to paint, so she became an artist. She learned to play instruments, from autoharp to banjo, and played at churches and senior centers with a band.
“She and my dad competed in the Senior Olympics together. She played full-court basketball in a four-team league at the age of 65.”
Although Mrs. Guidicy was a loving wife and mother, being a traditional homemaker held little appeal to her.
“When they built their house in Alexander Heights,” Robin said with a laugh, “she said she wouldn’t put in a kitchen at all if you didn’t need one to sell the house someday.”
She instilled a strong sense of service in her family and friends simply by her example.
“I told my dad not long ago that I’m grateful for the way he and my mother raised us,” Robin said. “Instead of always looking inward, they were looking outside, finding ways to help others.”
And help others she did, by the hundreds, with little fanfare.
“She didn’t go into detail about what she was doing or who she was doing it for,” her son said. “She saw a need and then figured out a way to do what she needed to do, whether it was making 1,000 dresses for girls in Honduras or going to Belize and figuring out how to make a destitute school one of the best in the country."
Robin said the young people she helped – “Jerry’s kids” – are sprinkled from Nigeria to Japan.
“They are IT directors, businessmen, lawyers,” he said. “One young man she helped came from Belize to be at her funeral. He said he feels like he owed everything to my mom.”
Bev said she was often surprised by her friend's projects.
“I’d say, ‘I didn’t know you did that,’ and she would say, ‘I don’t look back at what I’ve done; I look ahead at what I can do.’”
Mrs. Guidicy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the spring of 2014. She underwent an experimental treatment at the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis.
“The doctors gave her maybe four or five months,” Robin said. “We thought if she could get to Thanksgiving it’d be a miracle – and she made it a year.
“The week before she went in hospice, the doctor told her he’d never met anyone who wanted to live as badly as she did.”
Bev said her friend never asked for help or money for her efforts.
“She always said, ‘You can’t give too much. It’ll always come back to you in some way or another.’”
Bev plans to carry on her friend’s work in Belize.
“It will be hard. She’s everywhere there,” she said. “She could walk down the street and everyone knew Miss Jerry.”
Robin said his greatest concern is living up to his mother’s legacy.
“She is a hard act to follow,” he said. “I grew up with my own Mother Theresa. It wasn’t that she sold everything she had or lived in poverty, but she just wanted to leave the world a better place.”
“Life Story,” posted each Saturday on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.