Old

Every day in my daily routine, I ride down the same road. On that road I pass a retirement home. This retirement home is called Benton Retirement Village. It is full of retired elders and also houses dementia and Alzheimer patients. I have driven this road for two years now and have never stopped by. I have wondered if they need volunteers or what I could do there but have never even bothered to go in or even call.
The other day, I made the call. I spoke with a woman named, Lori. I asked her if they needed any volunteers and she couldn’t believe that I had called. She said “YES! We always need volunteers.” I smiled and was happy to know that I could help out in some way. We continued talking about who I would need to speak with about volunteering and things like that and just before we got off the phone, she says to me, “If you don’t mind me asking, what made you want to volunteer somewhere like here?”
Shocked for a second, I paused, and then responded, “I have a Grandmother whom is 92 years old. She lives in Georgia and I don’t get to see her everyday and if I can’t see her, I feel the need to spend time with others like her.” She responded, “Well that is wonderful.”
After I got off the phone with her I continued to think about that question.
Why do we volunteer?
And at first, selfishly I thought that it would make “ME” feel better. But that is NOT at all why I do it. It has nothing to do with me. Of course it will make my heart feel full but all I could think about was how happy it will make them feel.
They have lived this life full of adventure and I will never be able to understand what these people have experienced throughout their lifespan. They were young once, they were full of life, they were mothers, they were fathers, they were friends, they were brothers and sisters, they were children and they had a life.
And now at this point in their lives they have to depend on someone else to take care of them. To remind them to take their meds, to take them to the grocery store, to cook for them, to take them to church, to help them out of a chair, to walk them down the hall, just to do simple little task.
I could not imagine how they must feel. Helpless, lonely, sad, worried, scared, old are only a few words of emotions that they probably feel every day.
And so if she were to ask me again why I want to volunteer, I would say the same thing but I would also say “If I can put a smile on someone’s face today, if I can make someone laugh today, if I could make someone happy today, then that is why I want to volunteer.”