Helping Hand

The world is hugged by the faithful arms of volunteers.
Terri Guillemets

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.
Edward Everett Hale

This hand has folded all of these ice bags and then placed them into individual ziplock bags so that they can be distributed to various units in the hospital. This hand belongs to a man who exemplifies all that is good in this world. He is a volunteer at the hospital where I work and he spends three days a week in my department making things easier for all of us.

Could we function without him? Yes, but there would be days that would be insane.

Why is there just the one hand? The other is by his side, where it has spent most of its time since he had a major stroke in his early 50s. Many would have sat down and called it a day, expected others to wait on them and been miserable most days, but that is not his style.

The stroke took away his speech. He knows what he wants to say, but he cannot get the words to come out most of the time. We play 20 questions sometimes, but usually he gets his thoughts across and in the past four years his speech has improved. We are therapy for him and he is a answer to prayer for us.

It is hard to complain about much when you spend a day with him and experience his attitude about life, even in the face of a major stroke at such a young age.

Happy Blipping.