Maybelle has long said she was raised by volunteers. By this she does not mean that complete strangers came by her house in the afternoons to teach her right from wrong or fry her some okra for dinner, but that her parents were committed to giving back to their community. So much so that sometimes when Maybelle needed help getting her Girl Scout uniform ready or planning her science project, her folks were at a committee meeting or fundraiser, leaving Maybelle to fend for herself.

            “We knew you would be okay, for goodness sakes,” says Maybelle’s mother when Maybelle has the gall to bring up something so petty from her childhood. “But there were some people who needed our help, people who didn’t have your resources or opportunities.”

            Of course, at the time, when Maybelle was little, this did not make a lot of sense to her. She just knew that she was tired of ironing her clothes and doing her homework alone. But as she grew up, Maybelle learned the value of volunteering. Such outreach efforts not only assisted others, but they also helped her develop as an individual.

            Maybelle’s parents taught her a lot, actually, when they weren’t out effecting change. And two of their guiding principles were: “to those whom much is given, much is expected,” and “we are all pilgrims on the pathway of life who must help one another on the journey.”

            So it may not be surprising that Maybelle, too, has developed into a volunteer. One of her favorite outreach gigs is working with hospice patients. Maybelle’s family never talked about death and she didn’t want to be fearful of something so integral to life. Or at least that’s the way Maybelle sees it. So she gathered up all the gumption she could muster and signed up to be a patient caregiver with hospice.

            At first, Maybelle was worried she might not be able to meet the patients’ needs, but she shouldn’t have been concerned. Everyone she has worked with so far has been grateful and appreciative, and had something to teach Maybelle about death–and life. They ask for so little, to Maybelle’s mind. An errand here, time spent listening, a little housework there. According to many of the families, hospice volunteers allow them to recoup their energy so that they might continue their mission of caring for their loved ones at home.

            One patient, a feisty seventy-something woman named Melinda, sent her daughter out shopping the day before she died to buy Maybelle a gift.

            “Find something with an angel on it,” the mother instructed her daughter. “Thank you for being my angel,” read the card that accompanied the precious pewter pin of an angel clutching a heart. This made Maybelle cry, of course.

            It’s a story Maybelle tells when people ask her why she does it, why she hangs out with the dying.

 

Copyright Amy Lyles Wilson, 2008