Please step forward

Working as a volunteer is a very grateful job. In my opinion, working for free can give you as much satisfaction - or even more - as making big money. Of course, we need our pay check in order to survive in this hectic and selfish world. If only you could spend a couple of hours a week to work as a volunteer, you would know what I'm talking about.

A decade ago, I have worked full time as a volunteer in a local nursing home. It was my job to feed the elderly of my department. I helped them eat and some of them needed to be fed. I talked with them, laughed with them, sang with them, hugged them. Sometimes I played music on my flute and the residents of the home had to guess what song I was playing. They absolutely loved that game!

There were plenty of residents who had no idea who their family was. Not because they were mentally disabled. For the single reason that their family never came to visit them.. I thought that was so sad. They really suffered from not seeing their relatives. They missed their children and grandchildren. Some got visitors, around the end of the year. Just in time to come get their Christmas allowance... That's why I would take my children along, for them to cuddle and give all the love they had left.

Working as a volunteer is a special kind of work. It's a blessing. It's different. It's rewarding. Or at least, that's what it means to me, to say the least.