Ouachita Stories

The elderly are seriously the most precious human beings on this planet! I have always had the desire to serve the “young at heart” but didn’t know how to go about it. In chapel my sophomore year I remember hearing about ElderServe and you couldn’t have signed me up fast enough.

I was quickly matched with Ms. Lila Thompson. I would meet with her every week and she was a spunky one to say the least. She had just gone through a very intense and severe stroke making it very difficult for her to move her body. She often would get discouraged because her back would be in pain and she couldn’t be as active as she would’ve liked. I knew that I had to do something to make her day brighter!

So, I started decorating Ms. Lila’s door for every holiday and season and she loved it! She would always tell me how people would be jealous of her colorful and bright door when they would pass and she loved the attention.

Seeing her light up was always the highlight of my day and completely changed the mood of my visits with her. With me simply showing her I cared for her with my kindergarten craft abilities she smiled a little more than before.

Our visits were filled with stories, Let’s Make A Deal, and her giving me cooking tips. Towards the end of the school year, she wasn’t feeling as well and the pains were increasing, though she assured me all was fine and in God’s plan.

One day I went to visit Ms. Lila and her door was shut. I thought she might be sleeping but she told me to always wake her up. When I opened the door, however, there were two beds and no one inside. They moved her, I thought, but that wasn’t the case. Ms. Lila went to heaven the day before I could visit her and it was hard even though I spent a short time with her.  I was able to attend the funeral the next day and I quickly saw that she didn’t just touch my life but many others along the way and it was more of a celebration than mourning.

I still loved the elderly but thought I shouldn’t do ElderServe again. The Lord really laid it on my heart, however, and today I visit Ms. Leota Atkins with my boyfriend, who also has a heart for elders. Man, did I think Ms. Lila was a spit fire…that’s because I hadn’t met this sweet, hard-working, sarcastic, 94 year old. Yeah, 94!! This kind of made me nervous at first but she is definitely a tough one.

Today I still enjoy doing all the things I got to do with Ms. Lila but for different reasons. With Ms. Atkins she loves stories and showing us all of her crafts so we had “show & tell” and she loved it! The day that the Lord showed me I made the right decision in coming back was when I really didn’t have time during Tunes to visit with Ms. Leota and we ended up staying an additional 30 minutes. We lost track of time telling stories of her and her husband running off to get married, her living on a farm, and being a very busy mother of 5 children. Right as we were leaving she told her friend down the hall that Zachary and I were her “new best friends” and she said, “I love y’all, please come back now!”

This really hit me and opened my eyes that even though Ms. Leota may call me Nancy instead of Lauren she loves our visits and from that day on she always tells us she loves us, brings us treats, and loves to hear about our lives when we are there to do that for her. This is why I love ElderServe because she may think that we are helping her but truly she is helping us by showing us what it means to care for someone, even if it’s only 1 hour a week.  

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By Lauren Snow, junior Mass Communications major