#168 The gift of Helps

Yesterday I visited a friend recently released from Dodd Hall at Ohio State Medical Center where she was in rehab for a fractured pelvis, sustained about three weeks ago when she fell in her kitchen while mopping the floor. We met in 1978 when she was the part time temporary Agricultural Librarian at OSUL and I was the part time, temporary contract agricultural economics bibliographer funded by an AID grant for a special collection on foreign credit. Eventually she became the Journalism Librarian and I became the Veterinary Medicine Librarian, fields in which neither of us had started, so we‘ve stayed in touch over the years.

Back to the visit. When the emergency squad arrived after her fall, they had to break in because she couldn’t move. So a repairman was there when I arrived who was creating a new door frame, and he will come back to hang a new metal door when it arrives. Finding good service people is always a headache, so Eleanor uses Angie’s List, which is how she found him. Homeowners support the list to receive recommendations and ratings of services in over 250 categories.

We chatted a bit with the young man as he was about to leave and gave her the bill. “Do you have someone to bring you food?” he inquired of Eleanor who was sitting in a wheelchair. “My church can bring you meals.” Although I and other friends had offered to bring in meals, I was stunned that a complete stranger had volunteered his church! My church is located across the field from her condo, and I don’t think we are set up to do that for non-members.

Turns out he attends a small Baptist church on the near west side of the city, gradually losing membership as people move to the suburbs, as his family has done. They are a wonderful, warm group, he told us. I should say so! They warmed my day.