‘She made a difference.’

Every once in a while, a hero comes along to save the day when you most need it. Sometimes it’s a single act of courage; sometimes it’s a pattern of kindness that lifts your heart and pushes you forward.

Constance Merrifield didn’t have the usual superpowers like flight, x-ray vision, or super speed, but she was blessed with a different kind of incredible gift. Merrifield, who died Nov. 13 from cancer, cared about others so much that she devoted her life to advocating on behalf of the disabled.

“I think a lot of people would say she was their hero,” says Kathy Leuelling, chief operations officer at United Cerebral Palsy of Land of Lincoln, where Merrifield had worked since 1993. “If you talked to a lot of the individuals she’s worked with, you’d hear the same thing. She stood up for people, a lot of the people other people wouldn’t stand up for.”

Merrifield made sure her disabled clients had everything they needed to live a full and healthy life.

“Constance was always known around here as one of the best advocates that we had,” Leuelling says. “She made sure that people were treated with respect. She was always very good about making sure that they knew they could speak up, helping them learn how to speak up.”

Constance Arnetta Merrifield was born in 1951 and grew up in Alton, Ill., with six sisters and four brothers. Her older sister, Georgia Pearson, remembers Merrifield as a curious young girl with a strong will and a positive attitude.

“She liked to experience different things she didn’t understand,” Georgia says. “She just wanted to know about everything.”

Constance Merrifield worked various jobs before finding her true calling in social service. When she was laid off from an unrelated job, she went back to school to earn her bachelor’s degree and became an advocate at UCP.

“She was one of the those people who came in and got personally connected with other people,” Leuelling says. “She was right there in the trenches, and she was really a mentor to a lot of staff throughout the years, not just in learning their job duties, but in terms of setting goals for themselves and working so that they could develop themselves personally and professionally.”

Merrifield had a way of pushing others gently but firmly toward their goals, recalls one friend.

Deidra Lockhart met Merrifield during a difficult time in Lockhart’s life, and Merrifield was a support and an inspiration to turn her life around.

“She made me know I could change,” Lockhart says fondly. “She never judged me for my past. She knew that I could complete what I wanted to do. That’s what she gave me. She never did bring up the past, but was just an encouragement for me.”

That encouragement continued through another challenge in Lockhart’s life, one she shared with Merrifield. The two women worked on their master’s degrees together at the University of Illinois-Springfield, and Lockhart says Merrifield always kept on her to finish.

Merrifield earned her master’s degree in 2005, and Lockhart finished hers in 2008.

“I never got to tell her I did finish my project,” Lockhart says regretfully. “I know she pushed me to get stuff done. She persevered. She was a go-getter, an advocate, and she made a difference.”

When Merrifield found out she had cancer in late April, the disease was already in its fourth and final stage. She lived with it for about six months, but daughter Tiffoney Clark says her mother’s courage and dignity never faltered.

“I knew she was strong, but to have cancer and be in so much pain, she never, ever complained,” Tiffoney says. “She held her head up, and she never asked why. It gave me strength just looking at her in that situation. When they told her she only had six months left in her life, she said she was going to fight till the end, and she did.”

Merrifield was 58 when she died, leaving behind two sons, two daughters, six grandchildren and numerous friends. The impact she had on them and the other people in her life is immeasurable, Tiffoney says.

“I didn’t realize until she was sick how many people’s lives she impacted,” Tiffony says. “She always wanted people to be above level; not to settle, but to go above and beyond. She had so much knowledge, and I knew that when she said something, that was the answer.”

Leuelling says the world could use more people like Constance Merrifield.

“She was a role model for a lot of people. She lived what she said. If she said it, she lived it, and people could see that. That’s probably the best way to influence people,” Leuelling says. “We could use a lot more of her.”

— Patrick Yeagle