As Coordinator of Morningside Village, I felt like the Mad Hatter the night before leaving New York City for a week’s vacation in paradise. I was worried about one the older of our seniors who depends on Morningside Village, and, for her, I am its incarnation. She uses a wheelchair and doesn’t feel comfortable making excursions outside, so several volunteers have formed relationships with her and visit her regularly, but we have a special friendship. Even though I’d told nearly 100-year old Marianne that I would stop by at 8pm for a last visit before leaving, I wanted to get over to the hospital to follow-up with Miguel, an 85 year old who had had heart failure. (We never use real names in my blog). Even though I knew I had to delay my visit with Marianne, I had a nice visit with Miguel (looking so much improved from my last visit a few days earlier), chatting about current events and talking about his discharge from the hospital a week later. Next, I scurried down Amsterdam Avenue wondering if, while I was gone, Marianne would have enough distractions from the arthritic pain she often felt.
When I arrived, Marianne was resting in bed, so I pushed the wheelchair aside and sat down in a comfortable side chair near her. I thought she might feel a tinge of jealousy if I told her I was visiting someone else instead of giving her the time she may have wanted with me. But, I decided to tell her the truth anyway. She began asking me questions, and –although we usually don’t give out information about our seniors– she guessed just who it was that I had been visiting in the hospital. “I know him for half a century! I used to talk him once in a while at Tom’s Restaurant. He reads a lot.” Then it struck me: I asked Marianne if she’d like to become a Morningside Village volunteer and visit Miguel in the hospital while I was gone. Her eyes widened and her jaw fell open. Then, she quickly filched around the tabletop near her bed for a pen and pad. “Which building is he in? And the room number?”
I’m up here in the mountains where the wild flowers abound, but I’m tossing a thought back to Morningside Village with beautiful surprises of its own.
Irene Zola
Tags: aging in place, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, volunteering
