Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Date: Sunday, April 21, 2013; 2:00-3:30 pm
Saturday’s two projects had
packed a punch and I was quite beat this Sunday morning. A nice relaxing ‘Sunday Paper Hour’ sounded like a perfect way to spend an
afternoon. I arrived at Lakeview Nursing
to see that Mary was already there. She
is the only Volunteer leader that I know who makes name tags for the
volunteers. Typically volunteers have to
write down their names themselves, but Mary does it for everyone and there’s something
elegant about that style of leadership. I saw that Joe was watching his beloved Sox play and we chatted for a brief
while. Mary told me to pick a table and
go join a resident. It was time to read
the papers.
With events in Boston over the
past week, all the front pages were full of that story. I looked around and saw that Valerie, with whom
I had sat the last time, was engrossed in her Walgreens pamphlet, no doubt
looking for deals. I went and took a
seat next to Josie, who has been a participant in some of the projects,
including ‘Get Crafty’. Like Valerie, Josie was studying the Walgreens pamphlet as well. We talked about the
prices in Walgreens versus those in CVS.
In fact, there was a CVS insert, and we compared some of the
products and found that CVS was cheaper than Walgreens. Josie said that there were a lot many
Walgreens in Chicago as compared to CVS and I mentioned that this must be the
reason for CVS to lower prices, since they had to stay competitive.
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| The best part of a Sunday newspaper |
A lady had come to our table and
was standing next to me, listening. I
asked if she would like to join us and she was more than willing. She introduced herself as Jill, and said that
she had been there for 2 weeks and was leaving tomorrow. It didn't appear that Jill was interested in
reading any newspapers and was just there to chat, and so that’s what we
did. I learned that Jill had a 28 year
old son, who was going to come pick her up the next day. She said that her husband had passed away
long time ago, as had one of her other son's who had been 38 years old. I asked what had happened to him and she said that he had suffered from liver cancer and while
they had known for over a year, they could not get a transplant on time. While losing her son was tragic, this was
just plain sad that a young man such as him was not eligible for a timely
transplant. I remembered a conversation that I had a few months ago with someone, debating the merits of being an organ
donor versus leaving your body for science.
I had argued a case for being a donor because that directly impacted
people’s lives, while the other person had made a point that so would the
medical study, because it would teach the next generation of medical
practitioners, doctors and researchers who would go on to save people and
conquer disease. I couldn't complain
with that line of thinking either, though based on what had happened to her
son, there was no question on whose side Jill would have been.
I asked Jill why she was here and
she said that she had been struggling with depression. She had spent some time in a hospital, but
had felt that a place such as this would be much healthier for her. I told her that she was correct, and there were indeed a lot
many things that the residents could do here.
Jill knew about that and was in fact an active participant in a weekend ‘Bingo’ program. She mentioned proudly that she had already
accumulated $15 in Bingo currency, something that I am beginning to realize is
a valuable commodity over here. I told
her about the Chicago Cares programs there and she seemed particularly
interested in ‘Pet Therapy’. Jill has always had dogs, 4 so far, and the
most recent one had been a German Rottweiler named Otto. Unfortunately, he had passed away while she
was in the hospital. Her son, knowing
Jill’s love for dogs, had got for her a 6 month Fox Terrier. She said that she hadn't seen him and was
looking forward to doing that the next day.
I said to her that the new dog would be a great companion and she agreed. She said that one of her favorite activities
is spending time with her neighbor and walking in the park and was looking
forward to taking her new dog with her.
I also learned that she had been
married at 20 and for two years had worked as an assistant in an office, and had done so in the days of the Dictaphone. Then she had quit in order to raise her 3 boys, the youngest of who was picking her up the next day. She was proud of him and mentioned that he
would be getting married soon. I
congratulated her and asked about his fiancée.
Jill said she was good, but drank a bit too much. I said that they were young and we should cut
them some slack, at which she reluctantly agreed. I asked about her other daughter-in-law, who
was now bereaved and also had a son; if she was looking to get remarried. Jill said probably not. She said that she herself hadn't found anyone after
her husband had passed, and that it was difficult to find someone after all this time together with one person. I said that it was difficult
even without having had a spouse who had gone, and both of us talked about the
importance of companionship. Jill asked
about my job and what I would do if I didn't have to work. I said
that I would be a writer, something that she approved.
All this while I was talking with
Jill, Josie was in her own world, though she seemed to be listening. I also noticed one of the staff members from
Lakeview Nursing had been standing there, watching our group and I asked her to
join us. She introduced herself as
Sandy, and was a new activities person there. She did all the programs that involved
residents getting out of their rooms, and just this morning had been doing
nails for the women residents, including Jill. Sandy told us about one of her
other volunteer project, ‘Feed My Hungry
Children’, out in the suburbs. I
asked her about it and learned that they pack boxes of food for children in
developing countries and all it costs us is $0.22 to feed them daily. Sandy seemed like a nice person and I learned
that her care-giving extended beyond this place and she owned 3 dogs and 3
cats. She told us, much to our
amusement, that she takes her cats out for a walk in a stroller. Now that is a sight I would definitely want
to see!
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| That's a lot of islands! |
Sandy, who mom is from
Philippines, told us about the place and how it is comprised of over 7,100 islands. I said that
surely someone must have made it a mission to go to all of them. She said they had better hurry since Philippines
and China were arguing over an island and she wasn't sure how that was going to
end up. The funny thing is that the
island in question is very small and can hardly fit one house! Since we were talking about Philippines, the
topic turned to Imelda and her shoes museum. Sandy said that, while it wasn't as many, she
owned several pairs as well and blamed it on her Philippine ancestry.
By this time we had been joined
by Fran and I told her than Jill was very interested in dogs, Fran being an
occasional leader for ‘Pet Therapy’. Fran told us that once someone had brought a
parrot for the program - so much for Wilson’s idea to be the first to introduce exotic animals
to Lakeview Nursing. Mary indicated that
it was about time for us to leave and I told Jill that she had to come back to
participate in some of the programs, though she said that she prefers programs
in daylight, because she did not want to travel at night. This was perfectly all right and kudos to her
for at least making that effort. As we
left that day, Mary mentioned that one of our fellow volunteers had been one of
the founders of Chicago Cares and I was
disappointed not to have said hello and introduced myself. But it had still
been another excellent afternoon of conversation, one where I had lost track of
time and also not opened even a page of the newspaper in front of me. But hey, who’s complaining. Jill's stories were much better than anything the reporters had to say.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
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