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CLEARWATER, Fla. — With physical therapy you get out what you put in. Sonny Harriel, 75, doesn’t just tell his patients that, the physical therapy tech lives it in his career.
He has put in a significant amount of time during that career.
“I felt so good. I wouldn’t have thought that I would be in the hospital, or anywhere working for 50 years. But once I got 20 and 30, I said, that is it. I am not going anywhere,” said Sonny.
51 years now at BayCare’s Morton Plant Hospital, and it’s a place that has shaped his life in many ways.
Sonny Harriel has his own parking space at BayCare Morton Plant Hospital dedicated to his over 50 of service. (Spectrum News/Erin Murray)
Sonny even found love at the hospital.
“I said no for a couple of weeks, I kept saying, no, no, no. Then finally he kept being so insistent,” said Janice Harriel.
“It was it was 4:20, right outside the door at 4:20 we started talking,” said Sonny, who remembers the place and time he first talked to his now wife.
The pair married in 1991. Like Sonny, Janice has worked at the hospital a long, long time.
“This year is 45 years for me. From a child, to now 62 years old. This is my only place I have worked,” she said.
Janice smiles when she reminds everyone, she was born in this hospital, on the day former President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
For many African Americans, career longevity at one place of employment has proved more difficult. It is well documented that workforce challenges and discrimination have been a big part of history for Black Americans.
For Sonny and Janice, that was not the case. They both say it was the acceptance from their first day working at Morton Plant that played a role in both staying so long.
“Patients come up to us, they will come up to Sonny, and they will say you worked with me in therapy, and they will say, I remember you, you prayed for me,” said Janice. “And it’s such a good feeling, giving back to our patients in our community to let them know we love what we do here at Morton Plant hospital.”
Combined these lovebirds have worked 96 years for Morton Plant Hospital.
They don’t plan to retire soon either.
“People ask me, when do you retire? I told them they shredded my paper, so I don’t have retirement paper. That’s a trick I play on people, because I like having fun and I just enjoy working here and I don’t know anyone leave, right? No plans,” said Sonny. “As long as I can walk, I’m coming to work.”
Sonny is actually not the longest tenured employee at Morton Plant. A clinical nurse that started in 1973 has two years more on Sonny.
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Erin Murray
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