A nursing home, a hospital, a library and the Red Cross… what do these places all have in common? Well, let me tell you.  They are four places I have volunteered. I have discovered that if you’re disabled and businesses do not want to put you officially on their payroll, it’s easier to get your foot in the door if you offer to work as an intern.  Ok, ok, I’ll call it what it really is- working for free! Volunteering! 

Volunteering has allowed me to work in places I could only dream about and meet some very great people!  The nursing home started out because my sister was asked to go help a legally blind woman, Miss David, with her supper.  I started going along with my sister to visit Miss David and I met another elderly gentleman, Jack, who had CP and was confined to a wheelchair.  He never complained! He sat out by the nurse’s station, and he’d greet everyone with a friendly “Hello” and a smile! 

I got to visit with him and feed him his supper! I will never forget the very first time I fed him. They would have to serve something challenging to feed someone- those little, round, green peas! Those things can be hard to keep on a spoon!  By the time we were done with the meal, I felt like we had to be knee deep in little, round, green peas!  I had fun taking Jack exploring all around the nursing home, pushing him in his wheelchair!  I was glad to be able to give him a change of scenery!  Have you ever noticed that the people who have every right to complain are the people who never complain! I want to say it again!  Jack was always friendly and very upbeat  We really had fun together! 

I also had the chance to visit and help Miss David! When my sister couldn’t go, I would fill in for her and help Miss David!  She was a lovely, sweet elderly woman!  She was legally blind and needed to be told what she had on her supper plate. After she ate her supper, I would go to the kitchen and serve her up a bowl of ice cream. There were times when I wished I could’ve served up a bowl for myself too! 

She also loved these round (don’t worry no more little, round, green peas) things called “rusks.”  She would dunk them in her coffee and she made them look so good!  A couple of times I was tempted to ask her if I could have one or at least a couple of bites! 

Miss David had a need to be well stocked with toilet paper!  This was the beginning of my crime spree! Miss David lived on the second floor.  I would have to go down to the first floor and get one, maybe two rolls.  Today, sitting here typing this post, I’m thinking, “Why didn’t we just buy her a stash of her very own!” I think I remember there being this one particular nurse who didn’t like it when I came to make the big toilet paper heist!

The next volunteer job I’m going to tell you about made me feel really official because I had to wear a UNIFORM!  A friend, who was a nurse, asked if I would be interested in being a volunteer at the hospital on the same floor where she worked?  I was excited and thrilled! I have always been interested in the medical field! If I didn’t have CP, I would have loved to go into nursing!  I used to watch all the medical shows! Emergency (I would be tempted to conjure up an emergency if I knew Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto were going to be the paramedics coming to my rescue) ER, Trapper John M.D. and others!  Cate, come on now, it’s time to get back to reality!

The good feeling of feeling official didn’t last long! The head nurse on the floor where I was volunteering suggested that we wait a little while to see if I was going to work out before I got my name tag!  That was hard for me, I love anything with my name on it!  Even if I was on trial, don’t people still need to know my name?  What were they supposed to call me?  “Hey, you” or “Volunteer”?  At least I still had the uniform! Yellow smock, white pants and white shoes! 

My very first day my friend asked me to feed this guy his breakfast.  I said, “sure!” I was nervous because he was in bed, not sitting in a fully upright position!  I started feeding him baby spoonfuls!  He wasn’t going to choke and die on my watch!  Well, part way through, I noticed his chest wasn’t rising up and down, he wasn’t breathing!  Oh, no! I gave him too big of a mouthful!  It’s my first day volunteering and I accidentally killed the very first patient I fed!  If I had been playing Monopoly, it would’ve been- Do not pass go!  Go directly to jail!  I panicked!  I would go to jail and people there would say, “Hey, you were in here a few months ago for stealing toilet paper? Right?” All of a sudden, the man started breathing again!  I was never so happy to see anyone breathing!  I told my friend what I had witnessed with him not breathing and she told me that will happen! I think she actually said she forgot to mention that!  What a detail to forget to mention!  After that episode we decided that feeding people wasn’t the best fit!  I was glad to resign from that task! 

Guess what? I did work out and eventually received my name tag!  I did have a routine of tasks I would do!  Take bags of dirty laundry, this doesn’t sound all that grand and glorious- but wait- I GOT TO PUT IT DOWN A LAUNDRY SHOOT!  It was fun! Putting that laundry down that shoot gave a power rush!  Some of my other duties were taking blood and specimens to the lab and keeping supplies well stocked in the nurse’s station!  That whole experience of working in a hospital and working with my friend was exciting and fun! It was my dream setting, working in a hospital!  I could never be paid staff in a hospital! This one magical word- VOLUNTEER- opened even hospital doors to me! 

Tune in next week to hear more of my volunteering stories!