TEAYS VALLEY -- Retirement didn't wrap up Catherine Mills' teaching career.
When she was in her mid-70s, Mills stopped teaching water safety, ending a 32-year career as a Red Cross swimming instructor. She also spent 13 years as a high school teacher.
But she continued her volunteer tutoring with the Putnam County chapter of Literacy Volunteers of America. She started as a reading tutor and now, at 83, she has switched to teaching English as a second language.
Since June, Mills has been coaching Setsuko Yonekawa.
A resident of Toyota City, Japan, Yonekawa moved with four children in April to Teays Valley to join her husband, employed at the Toyota engine plant near Buffalo. He had preceded them in January and another daughter, 19, remained at college in Japan.
"I learned (English) when I go to school in Japan -- a long, long time ago," said Yonekawa, a nursery school teacher in her native land.
Mills empathizes with Yonekawa as the younger woman sometimes searches for the words to express her thoughts.
"I struggled through two years of French," Mills recalled. "I got so I could read and write." Period. Speaking French wasn't in the mix.
Yonekawa's vocabulary and spelling are excellent, so Mills focuses on conversation.
She comes prepared.
"English teachers always have lesson plans," Mills said as she consulted her outline for a one-hour session.
Their conversation ranged from a recent trip Yonekawa took to Chicago to a performance of a Japanese drum ensemble at the Museum in the Community in Hurricane to quilts.
"Quilt?" Yonekawa asked. A bed covering out of pieces of fabric sewed together, Mills explained.
Yonekawa remained puzzled until she grabbed her English-Japanese dictionary.
The two women work at the Putnam County Public Library, generally in the small kitchen across from the small Literacy Volunteer office.
Currently, the program has 23 tutors and 43 students, half of them seeking "English as a Second Language" tutoring, said Lois Martin, one of the program co-coordinators.
Mills, a resident of St. Albans, completed the required 10-hour training as a literacy tutor in 1986.
She tutored five or six students in reading before completing a one-day "English as a Second Language" training course and shifting to assisting students like Yonekawa.
"I had thought about stopping, but I'll just keep on as long as I feel useful," she said.
Although a Kanawha County resident, she volunteered in Putnam, where her family has roots. Her grandparents were from the Confidence area, she said.
"I feel an affinity for Putnam."
Tutor training is scheduled next month for people interested in volunteering.
Sessions will be held from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Oct. 12, 14, 19 and 21 at Putnam County Technical Center in Eleanor. There is no charge for training.
For more information, call the literacy office at 757-1550 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
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