Editor’s note: This Christmas Wish story is the fourth part of a seven-part series that highlights those who are served by United Way of Central Missouri’s 26 partner agencies.

Mentha Bakari volunteered to deliver meals with the Cole County Senior Center for almost nine years before taking advantage of the service herself.

Bakari had a stroke in June that resulted in extensive rehabilitation to regain her muscle use and required her to use more services at the center.

“I couldn’t talk when I got home, my speech was blurry,” she said.

She also said she couldn’t cut butter at first and still can’t cut meat. The Cole County Senior Nutrition Program provides free meals to seniors, both at the Senior Center and through deliveries to homes.

Her speech and cognitive abilities have improved in the last few months, though the journey has not been easy. She can now remember events from decades ago but had difficulty remembering recent events and names immediately following the stroke.

She said she thanks God for her progress since June because she knows people who had more serious strokes and were hospitalized for much longer.

Bakari moved to Jefferson City in 2016 and said she called then-Mayor Carrie Tergin shortly after to learn about volunteering options. She said Tergin recommended the Senior Center — where she had already been volunteering — as well as Living in Retirement and the Boys & Girls Club of Jefferson City.

Bakari said she thanks God for putting people in her life that she has been able to help, either through her former careers as a teacher and nurse or as a lifelong volunteer.

She volunteered when she lived in Chicago, where she lived during her childhood and early adult years, and in Milwaukee, where she lived from when she was about 30 years old until about eight years ago.

“I’m accustomed to giving back,” she said. “I’ve been volunteering my whole life.”

At the senior center, Bakari said she likes to focus on African American and Black American history. Her first year volunteering, she said she hosted a birthday party in January for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“And people talked about what they knew and nobody really knew about him. But there was a man that met Thurgood Marshall,” she said referring to the famous civil rights lawyer who served on the Supreme Court from 1967-91 and worked with King on challenging segregation. “And I said, ‘Oh, that’s so good. Because at every birthday party, friends come.’”

She and that person spent the rest of the party sharing stories about Marshall and King and later sang Stevie Wonder’s ‘Happy Birthday,” which Wonder had written to advocate for establishing MLK Jr. Day.

Bakari loves talking about politics and while she doesn’t agree with everybody, she said she’s always able to have a mature conversation simply expressing opinions.

“Those that I disagreed with, I disagreed with,” she said. “And it wasn’t a big deal because you’re entitled to your view. I never had those kind of conversations where people will put down others.”

Since 2016, Bakari has organized several programs at the senior center and the local library through Living in Retirement that discuss important moments or people throughout history with a primary focus on Black history, because Bakari said that’s what she likes to research and teach about. She also coordinated an African Women Festival when she lived in Milwaukee.

She hosts diversity training, though she’s planning on another training that changes that name to “inclusion training.” She explained that inclusion “takes more brain power” while diversity can sometimes feel like simply checking a box to follow the rules.

When she needs to conduct research, Bakari said she goes to Missouri River Regional Library or the Inman E. Page Library at Lincoln University.

“I love the library, I grew up in the library,” she said. “I call it my second home.”

During her time in Milwaukee, Bakari was a “rebellious teacher” at a middle school. During those years, she said her classroom was tucked in the back of the school and she taught about classic literature and the Harlem Renaissance.

“We had an absolute ball. We were never in the room,” she said. “You could find my kids out in the garden. They had a beautiful garden in the back with their computers or we were at the library.”

Bakari turns 75 years old on the day after Christmas. Before a few weeks ago, her Christmas wish would have been a membership to the Sam B. Cook Healthplex on Southwest Boulevard, but her brother recently bought her the membership for her birthday.

“And now I’ve lost so much weight, I need clothes,” Bakari said.

Lynn Farrow is an administrator with the Cole County Senior Center, which she said will soon move locations to 2027 Christy Drive, which she said will hopefully provide more options for residents and more space so more Jefferson City seniors can use its services.

“They’ll have a coffee bar and an activity room. We’ve got some high hopes for it,” Farrow said.

The Cole County Senior Nutrition Program already uses the building on Christy Drive as a distribution center and Farrow said moving the senior center there would hopefully simplify the entire process.

Bakari said Farrow has been “instrumental and inspiring” during her recovery process.

“See how nice she is?” Bakari said after Farrow complimented someone passing by at the senior center. “Lynn has been wonderful.”