...they became roommates at Golden Living Center, but they already had plenty to talk about when they got there.
By THERESE APEL,
DAILY LEADER Staff WriterSeptember 28, 2009
"We started rooming together about three or four months ago," Walker said. Walker, 80, was a Justice Court judge for almost 12 years, starting in 1975. Ironically, while she was working to put people in jail for breaking the law, Brooks, 79, a bail bondsman, was helping get them out.
"I was getting people out of jail," Brooks said. "They wouldn't stay in there 10 seconds. They wanted out of there."
The two women sleep in a comfortable room, in beds that line a wall separated by a curtain, but it's open most of the time. The walls, tables and shelves are lined with photos of their families and keepsakes. During the day, they sit in chairs that face each other and when they're not doing activities set up by Golden Living Center staff, they talk about family, or reminisce about old times. And they're grateful for each other's friendship.
"She's a really good person," Brooks said. "And we're really good friends." Walker agreed. "I'm very lucky to get to live with her," she said. Both say it was in part, the criminal justice connection that gave them something to bond over. There are stories upon stories that they can both tell about their days on either side of the court process.
Walker tells the story of a man who came into her court after asking some game wardens to stop what he said was a man who was baiting turkeys on his land at 3 a.m. When they went out to the complainant's property, they found something unusual.
"They went out before they thought he was up, and they found him feeding his turkeys," she said. "He was feeding his own turkeys."
And Brooks said she remembers the days when she almost felt like a celebrity because people would call out to her when she would visit the jail to get them out. "People would holler at you when you went to get them out," she said. "They'd see me and holler, 'Hey Dot, come get me out of jail!'" But still, Brooks said, people would confuse her with her sister, Ruth Newman, who actually got her into the business of bail bonding. And both women said just as there are happy memories, there were some down sides to the jobs as well.
"We didn't know each other back then, but we knew all the crooks," Brooks said. "I saw some pitiful sights, but I enjoyed my job." Walker had another facet to her job that judges today don't often have to deal with, as well. She said some scenes from her job still haunt her. "If they found someone dead and the coroner couldn't go, we had to go," she said. "That bothered me." But the part of both jobs that the women still treasure to this day is the chance to connect with so many people.
"I loved my job. I just loved meeting people and helping people," Walker said. "You make great friends, but you also make great enemies." Walker said she has advice for people who still want to make a difference, whether they're in some part of the justice system or not. It's easy to help people and change things, she said.
"I love voting. They bring us our absentee ballots up here so we can vote," she said. "You've got to vote." And both women have influenced the generations of their families. Brooks has two nephews and a niece who are bail bondsmen now, and she said she hopes they enjoy the work as much as she did.
Walker's grandson Ryan Cannon just graduated from law school in May, she said, and along with passing along the legal gene, Walker passed along something else as well. "My grandson has my gavel on his desk," she said. "I'm very proud of him."
