In January of 2008, Harold Weeks, alone for the first time in 57 years after his wife, Anna May, had died six months earlier, was looking for a way to make use of free time.
He decided to stop by Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle to see if they could use some help.
The answer is always yes, says the hospital’s volunteer coordinator, Cathy Johnson.
“The hospital is always in need of more caring and dedicated volunteers, ” Johnson said. “Volunteering can be an opportunity for those who are retired, sitting at home who need something to do, or just to get out of the house once a week to help give back to their community.”
Volunteer opportunities are varied, everything from working in the gift shop, helping transport patients within the hospital, assisting in the outpatient surgery and a host of other duties.
As Weeks scanned the options, one opening caught his attention, even though it is probably the most emotionally demanding of all the volunteer positions.
“When I saw they had an opening in the critical care unit,” he says, “I just felt like the Lord was telling me, ‘This is it.'”
Weeks’ wife had spent the last three weeks of her life in the hospital’s CCU. That experience convinced him the job was the right fit for two reasons.
“I could have volunteered for other jobs, but when my wife was here, the people in CCU were so good to us, I just felt an obligation to give something back to them,” Weeks says. “The other part is that I know what it’s like to have a loved one in CCU. I’ve been in their shoes, too. So, really, I felt like the Lord had led me to this job.”
Weeks, 85, is closing in on eight years as a volunteer. He works from 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays.
His job is varied — everything from stocking the coffee bar in the CCU waiting room, making sure there are plenty of fresh pillows and blankets for patient relatives, answering the phone, keeping relatives and friends aware of what is going on, and, perhaps most important of all, being there to listen.
“I’m careful not to intrude of people,” Weeks says. “But sometimes, what they need most of all is just someone to talk to, someone to listen to them. I understand that and I’m always there to listen.”
In his quiet, unobtrusive way, Weeks has become an essential member of the hospital’s team.
Last week, Weeks was selected as the hospital’s Volunteer of the Year.
“What a great choice, too,” says hospital chaplain Steve Brown. “He just has a way about him. He’s a very comforting presence, just a gentle soul.”
A Massachusetts native, Weeks’ 20-year career in the Air Force brought him to Columbus in 1965. He retired in 1971, then embarked on another 20-year career at Mississippi University for Women in the security department.
He has been a member of First Christian, where he is a deacon and elder, since moving to Columbus.
His volunteer job, he says, is an extension of his faith, although that doesn’t make him immune to the emotional toll working in the CCU can often bring.
“There are a lot of times when people pass away here and those are always the most difficult times,” he says. “Yes, it does get to you.”
Weeks said the most emotional experience came a few years ago, when a fellow elder at his church fell ill and eventually passed away.
“That was tough,” he says, his eyes moist with tears. “But, looking back, I’m glad it was me here instead of someone else. I’m glad I was able to do my little part for the family.”
Weeks says he has no thoughts of giving up his volunteer work.
“I’m in pretty good health, just one stint they put in a few years back,” he says. “I feel pretty good, so I’m going to keep volunteering.
“I always tell people I’m going to live to be 100 years old,” he says. “And I’m going to live it one day at a time.”
If he has any say in it, for the next 15 years of Wednesdays and Fridays, Weeks will be at his post at the hospitals’ CCU waiting room.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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