Volunteer Post: Sarah
One of my
favorite projects these past 2 months is working at the Octavia Waight Center
which is a nursing home and a retirement home for the elderly (ages 60- 105) who's
family can't take care of them. The center is located in a remote spot of town
which is a calf crushing hike to get there! I've learned alot of life lessons
and stories going to Ocatvia twice a week. We get there bright and early to
help Dorothy, a little old Swedish woman, do physical therapy weights and
stretches with the residents. She reminds us we need to take special care
because some of the people are blind, or deaf, or suffer from some sort of
dementia. You definitely have to have a certain tenderness of heart to help
them strap on weights and stretch out their old joints.
One
older man, Vladimir has a condition where he can’t use his legs anymore and I
carefully take his feet out of his shoes, grab a stool next to him and slowly
stretch out his legs onto my lap and rotate his feet in circles as we talk
about his days working at the lumber yards loading up barges and the different
comrades he knew. Sometimes it’s a bit frustrating because I can’t understand
most of the resident because they couldn't really talk clearly anymore or they
kept combining english, spanish, and creole. If I can't understand them I just
sat there holding their hand, smiling and listening. Some of them are hilariously
spunky and they are all so kind giving me hugs and kisses. One of my favorites is
Owen Jones who had been a traveling musician since the age of 15. He grew up in
the jungle and he told me all about his passion for music and some of his
stories from growing up. When I left he held my hand crying with joy that I had
come over and asked him to play his guitar for me. I then get all the gossip
from Isabel who just turned 80 this month and is the last member of her family.
Isabel and I can talk for hours about her life growing up in Belize in a
thatched house and then when she was a nanny in Chicago for 20 years earning money
for her family back home. I've really come to love those mornings at Octavia
and things I’ve learned from each individual person’s story.
