Location: Mary Hartwell Catherwood Apartments
Date: Saturday, May 3, 2014; 9:00 am-12:00 pm
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| Sandy's famous banana bread |
Most of my visits for this
program have been during winter and the walk from the train station has always
been a perilous proposition. So it was
pleasant to be able to do so when the streets were clean and sidewalks
visible. I arrived to find the regulars doing the same things that I had been accustomed to seeing. As usual, Sandy had brought something with
her and this time it was her famous banana bread. As I had done previously, I set about the
task of cutting the banana bread into 8 pieces. I had learned the technique of cutting in
halves and implemented that to prepare portions for distribution to the
residents. I chatted with one of the new
volunteers and learned that she worked in a Sushi restaurant. I
mentioned that a sushi chef’s caliber is usually measured by the uniformity of the width of each cut piece of the roll. Looking at what I had done with the banana
bread, there was no risk of me being employed as a sushi chef any time soon!
Sandy was sporting a new, shorter
haircut and she said that she had cut her hair to support ‘St. Baldrick’s Foundation’, which funds pediatric cancer
research. She said that her friend’s son
was raising money and she had promised him that she would shave her head if he
met his goal. He had accomplished that, and she had
happily obliged. To those of us who know
her, it was not a surprise that she should do so. I went around with the new volunteer to serve
the banana bread to the residents. One
lady asked if there were nuts in there and was happy when we reported that
there weren't any. As we went around for
seconds, one gentleman started rubbing his tummy and said no. I nodded as he continued laughing at his own
joke. It wasn’t just him; everyone seemed to be in a good mood.
Another of the volunteers that I
had not seen before had taken this cooking project way too seriously and had
brought his own knives. He had also
brought some pastry from a place called ‘Dinkles’,
which is apparently quite famous. We had apple pie and a cream coffee cake. As
I went around distributing it, only a few requested specific items, the rest
just happy to have so many treats. One
gentleman was visiting from the adjacent building and said that he should move
to this one if such was going to be the service. The breakfast was now ready and for once,
instead of being a runner, I was going to be serving - scrambled eggs at that. This also meant that the serving size was a bit
more subjective, unlike others who could give out 2 pieces of sausages
or 1 biscuit.
With our fast moving line,
everyone was served fast and soon we were ready to start the clean-up. Once again as a first, I would not be
washing the dishes, but rather be helping out at Bingo. I took a seat with a group of ladies and we
began. Right from the beginning, our
table was hot and we were continuously winning. So much so that one of the
women at our table had to start giving her prizes away. There were calls for her to buy a lottery
ticket, though I said that it was all because of me! She was a bit of a chatterbox and despite
winning a lot; she was complaining that her Bingo card was getting stuck very
often. When I went and got her a new
one, she didn't like the color. Oh, well
who was I to argue with a winner! She
did say that she should play the lottery and always referred to her birthday
when that number came up. I said that
perhaps she should use her birthday number to play and she agreed. But she truly was a character and even took
to yelling out a number when it was called, not just when she had Bingo.
Everyone at my table had won except
one lady, but she was still in great spirits.
All the prizes had soon been distributed including the “coverall” cash prize, donated by a volunteer. We wrapped up and I chatted with Sandy before
leaving. She said that she would add us
to the list for the next session. It’s amazing
that we meet just once a month – in my case longer than that – but we feel like
we know each other so well. And the
residents treat Sandy like family. For us the volunteers, it’s almost an identical
feeling.
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