I have been a volunteer since August. First I served in nurse unit 90 and 91, which are cardiac stepdown wards. The patients were usually old people, weak and sick. They waited there for cardiac surgery or some small procedures. Being in the hospital was very boring and frustrating.
What did I do there? I was not allowed to touch patients physically. I could get water for them, bought newspapers, picked up things on the floor, helped them to open cans or just talked a little bit until their family members visited them.
On my first day there, a lonely old man, who came from PA and suffered both heart disease and diabetes, felt very blue. After I introduced myself and asked him what I could do for him, he held my hands and cried like a kid. He was shaking and I could felt how depressed he was. He had been bedridden about a week. The doctor told him he would be fine. But he had not felt any improvement. To be honest, I did not prepare for it. What I could do at that time was to try my best to comfort him by telling him how great the clinic was, how great the doctors were, he would be fine definitely. I knew what I said was so powerless and helpless. He night know much better than I did and that was why he chose this clinic. He calmed down little by little. We started to chat. Talking did help a lot. He started joking a bit with me. He wanted me to guess what he did before he retired. The hint was he used to make people smile. The answer was dentist. Then he told me one of his son was working on scientific research but shifted to be a patent lawyer because of difficulties of getting funded. He finally asked me to guess where he used to work. The hint was none of my friends would like being there (prison). My ridiculous answer made him laughing. Although I felt bad about my listening ability, I was happy for him. He got out of depression, at least temporarily. I saw him again the following week. He was walking along the corridor with his wife’s help. He hugged me gratefully. He told me he had been in the hospital for over 13 days and would leave soon. I believe he is getting much better now and I hope he would have a full recovery.
When people know I am a volunteer, they will ask me why. Why I want to be a volunteer? The main reason is I was helped by volunteers. My two tutors are volunteers. When I gave birth to my baby son, some volunteers working in the hospital helped me and my family a lot. Time for me to return people’s kindness and generosity although I am a foreigner.
I changed my volunteer job this week from the nurse unit to the gift shop. Because the patients’ family members, relatives and friends will visit them on weekends, most likely it is hard for me to keep busy in nurse unit. First time to be in gift shop was not a bad experience at all. I like this environment, pretty and elegant. I almost had pulse to buy something for myself. What did I do today? Delivered flowers and gifts to patients, inflated and decorated many balloons, rearranged shelves. When I was free, I read books.
I remember when I was an undergraduate student, my girl friends and I had many dreams. One of them told me, she would run a fashion shop. It was not for earning money, but for enjoy herself once she was rich enough. My dream at that time was to run a flower shop with the same goal ---- to enjoy life and meet elegant, friendly and thoughtful people. Today when I worked in the gift shop, the dream came back to my mind. Am I able to make this dream come true some day in the future?
