Don Harris was, in his own words, “down in the dumps” after his wife, Marianne, passed away. His health was deteriorating, and his outlook on life was bleak at best. He was downbeat, depressed and despondent.
In the past year or so, he has dropped 60 pounds, jettisoned his cane and crutches and regained his enthusiasm for life. To what does he owe this drastic metamorphosis? According to Harris, at least 75% of his change for the better can be directly attributed to taking on the job of delivering copies of HealthLinks magazine to doctors’ offices, grocery stores and other locations in the greater Charleston area.
“I’m in much better health now. Before, I was just sitting here feeling sorry for myself. It was just me and my little gray cat,” he said. “I’m moving rather than just sitting around, and my doctor says I’m in good enough shape to aggravate people for another five or 10 years.”
“I needed something to do to pick me up. I needed to get fresh air and get out and meet people,” said Harris, now 78 and looking forward to working for HealthLinks Publisher Cullen Murray-Kemp for at least another decade. Nowadays, though he claims to be “only 35 in my heart,” he gets some help from his daughter, Catherine Rene. He has another daughter as well – Amy Amanda.
Harris currently delivers copies of HealthLinks in Mount Pleasant, North Charleston and Goose Creek, and he looks forward to soon expanding his Lowcountry footprint to Moncks Corner, Summerville and Walterboro. In the beginning, he dropped off 250 bundles of 25 magazines each, but he has taken the initiative to add another 150 bundles to his bimonthly route. That number will undoubtedly continue to rise, buoyed by his enthusiasm for his job and for the message HealthLinks is presenting to consumers and health and medical professionals in the Lowcountry.
Harris is constantly looking for new distribution locations, banking on his experience in the business world and his newfound enthusiasm to convince potential distribution partners to offer complimentary copies of HealthLinks.
“Marianne once told me that I could sell ice to an Eskimo,” Harris said. “It’s all about your attitude. I go in and say ‘good morning, how are you doing’ and tell them what I’m doing and what I got. They can’t believe it’s free.”
“It’s about how you treat people. If you’re feeling bad, they see it. You’ve got make people feel like you enjoy being there with them, and they change their attitude toward you,” he added.
A native of the South Carolina Upstate, Harris was born in Clinton and grew up in Greenville. He owned a pest control franchise and later a landscaping business, but Marianne told him he “didn’t have the sense to come home when it was 100 degrees” so, he said, she sold all his equipment. He worked at the Port of Charleston for five years before retiring to care for his wife.
Harris has discovered a way to survive the loss of his wife and stay active, and Murray-Kemp has found an ambassador who enjoys spreading the word about HealthLinks throughout the Lowcountry – “a symbiotic relationship” – according to the magazine’s publisher.
“If you don’t enjoy your job, you ain’t going to amount to a hill of beans,” Harris concluded. “If you don’t enjoy it, don’t be there. I hope I can be there another 10 years.”
By Brian Sherman
