Lickity Split... not

LICKITY SPLIT: A description, of doing something in a fast time. I have picked up this little phrase as well as some other golden oldies, hanging with the retirees that volunteer with me at the Hospital. My conversations have been a tad different than my usual as well. When I was "Office Mom", at the last employment, I grew to favor this title and truly enjoyed the youth that surrounded me in that office. Although my "co-workers" are very diverse from the last employment, I am enjoying their company as well. I am finding it an adjustment to decrease my pace. I live up to the name, "Speedy Gonzalez", and attempting to slow it down a notch. My co-volunteers understand the concept of, slow & steady, much better than I. They have been around this block longer than I. Most everyone that I am working with have retired and yet not ready to stop working. These folks have dedicated their lives to work, and are not about to give it up in their golden years. Some are lonely, many just need to feel needed. I am amazed how much they work. Their paychecks? A meal ticket for a free lunch (up to $7.00) per day, a pin to wear on our nifty Volunteer Vest to show off after 500 hours, and so on. They are so dedicated. They awe me. It is very interesting to get a better insight on hospitals. Something I am getting a glimpse of sitting here watching and learning.  It is very much a community. We have several patients that come on a regular basis for dialysis and other outpatient treatments. Also, I am starting to see familiar faces in the Doctors, Nurses, Chaplains, and other employees here at the Hospital. Currently I work the Information Desk, escorting  patients helping them find their way to where to go, and to the parking lot when discharged. I run parking passes and cards, as well as flowers and balloons. I also pick up and drop off specimens to the laboratory. I recover wheel chairs that mysteriously never return to the wheel chair parking area. I am still waiting to get into training for the "Help Program". That is what I was originally assigned and what I was hoping to do. That or Hospice.  I am trying to be patient but always struggle with it. Working the Information Desk is not where I want to be. There are plenty of Volunteers here, and I do not feel as needed. They are lovely, and I enjoy them. But I want to be helpful in a different way.  I want to fill that void from visiting my Aunt when she was living in the nursing facility. Hopefully that will begin this week. Please do me one favor next time you are in the Hospital. Look around. Try to remember, not to call only with that complaint. Try to remember to be thankful. From that Doctor to the volunteer. It pleases them so to be told a simple, thank you. To often we get so busy we forget to do that. One of my co-volunteers worked as an LDR nurse in this hospital for 40 years before having to retire. After a couple of years "retired" she came back and is a volunteer. She has been for many years. She puts in long hours, never complains and doesn't make a dime doing this. Just a lunch pass.  She has touched thousands of lives. She is absolutely an angel. This Hospital is Blessed with many like her. I wonder how they would run without her help. I hope she is appreciated.