Stories from the Edge - Volunteer Now

quick to give assurances to those who are alone or who are worried about an operation. Helping patients gives its ownreward according to Valerie, "I like being able to assist patients when they arrive, point them in the right direction and helpput their mind at rest".Another volunteer is Newtownards lady May Smith, who travels to and from Musgrave Park Hospital on average four timesa week. Why does she do it? The perennial and enduring question keeps popping up. "I like to keep active and get involvedin community activities and a hospital is a community of sorts, besides it’s great to be part of a team providing a bit ofhuman solidarity to patients, their families and staff too", the plucky lady said.Then there are of course the 'Church Wheelers'. A group of 30 whose function is to wheel patients to and from Sundayservice at Musgrave Park Hospital. The 'wheelers' are from the four main Church denominations and are always on hand tohelp during special services such as Harvest Thanksgiving, Good Friday and Christmas carol service. The Church Wheelingmajority live locally but one of the architects of the scheme thinks nothing of doing a 40 mile round trip. For thesevolunteers the act of worship in one of the most beautiful hospital churches in the country makes it worthwhile.Another impressive volunteer is Freda Lynch, a single woman who had spent a quarter of a century - more than half of herlife - looking after her mother. Her story is one of selfless giving. Freda was the youngest of three children and her motherdied when she was just a toddler. Her father remarried this time to a Mullingar woman. This was not to be a story of thewicked stepmother. Eileen Lynch raised her step children with love and tenderness and within a short time they becameher own.Her step mother's death was a terrible lose to Freda. From the mid 1970s Freda had given up her job to work full-time asa carer. Freda's father died in the early 1980s. She and her mother moved from Ballymurphy to a double bedroom bungalowin nearby Turflodge. It was good times and bad. Freda remembers the bedroom door of their house being always open. Likeany concerned guardian Freda listened for every sound coming from her mother's room. Often during the wee small hoursan unusual cough or noise would bringher rushing in to check on Eileen. Evenwhen she was in another part of thehouse Freda would continue to chatterto her mother. It was her way of alwaysbeing on hand. But it was not alwayswork. Freda watched TV with hermother in the evening. She would playgames. Her mother's favourite wasScrabble. "We spent long hours playingscrabble. Mommy would cheat and we“she was caring for herfriend who also happenedto be her mother”would get a great laugh", she fondly remembers but there were also those bad days. "My mother was always an activeperson who found that she now had to rely on others. She was so used to doing it for herself. In many ways she had herdignity taken away. She would be in a bad mood but that's to be expected. I loved my mommy", Freda said softly.