Saying Goodbye

Yesterday was my last day of volunteering for this assignment. I arrived today and learned that a resident had passed on. It was sad, but I know that these things happen and come with the nature of the environment. This morning I went on my usual walk around the facility with Conchita. Today Conchita wanted to take the house dog “Sweetie” with us. We walked for about half an hour and discussed the whether and her recent visit with her daughter and sons. Its difficult because I have heard the same story at least 20 times by now. Conchita is in the first stage of Alzheimer’s disease. She is very alert and her long term memory is wonderful. Its her short term memory that has started to diminish. I just pretend like I am hearing the story for the first time. Even though she repeats herself frequently, I still enjoy spending time with her because she truly appreciates the time I spent with her. After our walk, Conchita shared with me a scrapbook that her sons had put together for her. I was able to enjoy looking at her younger years and experiences.

After I spent some time, Conchita became tired and felt the need to take a nap. We said goodbye and I moved along to spend time with other residents. I worked with some of the other residents that I have become friendly with: Amy, Carl, Elizabeth, Mike and Fran. We all participated in what they call “Word Wizard”. In word wizard a bunch of letters are randomly taken from a bag, (ten letters or so) and the words are written on a white board where everyone can see them. Then, we try to take the letters and make as many words as we can. Its fun and interesting to watch how sharp their minds still are. We played for about an hour. This concluded my allotted time.

In conclusion, I feel that there was a great benefit from the service learning portion of the class. I have previous volunteer experience, but for those who don’t have any, it really forces you to get involved with the community. I think there are many assumptions that students have about volunteering, most of them are not true and you cant find out until you participate. For me, this semester has been especially hard on me, so I haven’t been able to spend as much time as I used to volunteering. As I have mentioned before with six full classes, working full time, an occasional infection and wisdom teeth pulling; I found it extremely hard to balance them all and find the time to volunteer and find the time to reflect in my blog. Somehow I managed to do it and once I have more time on my hands like in the summer; I plan to keep visiting Conchita and the other residents in the Sunrise community. The overall best part of this experience was the feeling I left with each and every time. I felt valued and truly appreciated. It really makes you feel good about yourself.