Pure religion: The tip of the iceberg
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Scientists estimate that usually only one-eighth of an iceberg is visible. The rest is under water and unseen. Jayne Hartman of Salt Lake City, Utah, is a little like an iceberg. Ask her about her life and she'll tell you she's been a public servant, worked as a secretary, and done some volunteer work. The real story of Jayne Hartman is what she doesn't talk about.
In 1942, the nation went to war and Jayne Hartman enlisted in the U.S. Army. She did clerical work at several bases and, eventually, was accepted as a candidate for officer's school. After becoming a 1st lieutenant, she spent the rest of the war supervising others.
In 1945, she retired from the Army and spent 23 years doing clerical work for a subsidiary company of General Motors. When she retired from that career, her bishop told her about a secretarial position in the Church Office Building. So, at 59 years, Sister Hartman applied for the position and was hired — as secretary to then president of the Quorum of the Twelve, Spencer W. Kimball.
Sister Hartman doesn't say much about her seven years as a secretary to the president of the Church. She shrugs her shoulders and says it was nice.
When she turned 65, Sister Hartman retired from Church employment.
In June of 1983, Sister Hartman began volunteering at Welfare Square at the LDS Employment Resource Center. Twenty years later, Sister Hartman is still at her desk in the Welfare Square Employment Resource Center.
Though she has had three cornea transplants and is suffering from macular degeneration, she plans to keep working. "The Lord has blessed me," she said. "I'm 88 years old and every day I just keep putting one foot in front of the other."
At the Employment Resource Center is a book that lists the biographies of the dozens of people who have volunteered there over the years. Most people have a full page of text. Next to Sister Hartman's picture are three short sentences explaining that she has a daughter and seven grandchildren, that she has done some secretarial work, and that she has done volunteer work at the employment center.
But that is the kind of thing people smile about when they talk of Jayne Hartman. For like an iceberg, the part that is visible is only a hint of what is underneath.
— Neil K. Newell, Welfare Services
