(CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Mollie Hartley can sum up her retirement plans in three words: “Relax, relax, relax.”

She has worked as registrar at Discovery Middle School for the past 17 years. For the next registrar at the school, Hartley recommends “not to get overwhelmed during crunch times, like at the beginning and end of school.”

She transferred to Discovery when the facility was converted to Madison’s second middle school to handle the overcrowding at Liberty Middle School.

Before then, she had worked at Liberty for seven years. “I was a stay-at-home mom until my second child was in the sixth grade and went to work at Liberty when it first opened in August 1990,” Hartley said.

She also worked in the office at American Bread Company on Ala. 20 for a few years before her first child was born.

From her years attending school, Hartley best remembers her biology teacher at Sparkman High School. “She was strict but I learned so much from her and actually liked biology,” Hartley said.

Her husband John owns a commercial paint company in Huntsville. He also graduated from Sparkman and played football for two years at the University of North Alabama.

“My son Heath Hartley is 40. He works with his dad and has two children, Haley, 7, and Parker, 4. Heath graduated from Sparkman and Athens State University,” Mollie said.

The Hartleys’ daughter, Heather Hartley-Epperson, 35, is a veterinarian in Fort Walton, Fla. She graduated from Sparkman and Auburn University and has two daughters.

Now that she has retired, Mollie Hartley plans to spend time with her family and grandchildren.