Pounds Retires with 43 Years of Service
Regenia Pounds, secretary for Security Services, has retired after more than 43 years of service at North Mississippi Medical Center.
Regenia joined NMMC as a ward secretary in May 1980 when she was 18 years old. “My interview was, ‘Hello. You are Irene Pounds’ daughter, correct?’” she says. “You are hired. See you on Monday.” She later served as a secretary on the hospital’s new south wings.
The Shannon High School graduate completed prerequisites for nursing school but while working at NMMC became more interested in computer technology than nursing. She went on to earn associate degrees in office technology systems and computer office systems from Itawamba Community College in Tupelo and Fulton.
Regenia became the hospital’s first IT support technician around 1986, making the transition there from manual charting to using light pen computers. After three years, she was named as a computer technician for Surgery, where she worked for 22 years. She transferred to Security Services in 2011.
“Our little hospital on the hill truly was the hospital with the down-home feel. Everyone knew everyone,” Regenia says. “We were all like a big happy family. The co-workers you worked alongside and grew up with became friends, who became family.” In fact, she selected two coworkers as godmothers for her oldest son.
While Regenia says she’ll miss those she was blessed to work alongside, retirement has much to offer her. “I look forward to traveling and doing full-time ministry. I love to travel—traveling for ministry even more so,” she says. “I love to read God's Word and pray for our families, cities, nation and world.” She also loves to worship through song and dance—and have fun while doing so.
She also enjoys watching movies, especially binge-watching on weekends with her youngest grandson. “I asked someone one time what will they do when they retire. They said, ‘what I want to, when I want to,’” she says. “I said that’s going to be my motto when I retire. To do what I want to, when I want to! With God's permission of course.”
Regenia lives in Shannon and has two sons, George Spragin Jr. and Dongarn (Victoria) Spragin; grandchildren, Dongarn Jr., Geor'Don, Georgia and Shinji Spragin; one great-grandchild, Dongarn Spragin III, and one on the way.
In parting, Regenia shared some Bible wisdom, “Always choose to nurture people the way that you would like to be nurtured. You know that ‘do unto others’ thing that God said, He meant it. Owe no man nothing but to love them,” she says. “Always, ALWAYS put God first, in every area of your life, and the rest of life, good things and bad, according to Romans 8:28 will work out for your good. I am a living testimony of this. Romans 8:28 says, ‘So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together for good, for we are His lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.’”
