By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Sue Donaldson has been delivering meals to homebound seniors once a week for 20 years. That’s something like 10,000 meals she has handed over each Wednesday to hundreds of people across those decades.
Delivering warm meals from the Wood County Committee on Aging is a labor of love for the Pemberville area resident who grew up in Bowling Green. She enjoys the opportunity to meet new people, learn a little about them, and often be the only human touchpoint they have that day.
But it was a day in January this year that sparked a special connection.
Donaldson arrived at the home of Nancy Metz—only the second visit since Metz had moved into her new home. The week before, they had chatted about an issue Metz was having with her cell phone, so at the beginning of the second week that was the first thing they talked about.
As Donaldson asked if the phone issue had been resolved, she noticed Metz was wearing a Miami University sweatshirt.
“Did you have a son or daughter or grandchild go to Miami?” Donaldson asked. “You looked at me and said, ‘That would be me.’ And I said ‘That would be me.” The university connection immediately bonded the two faithful Miami University alumnae, but the story didn’t stop there.
When Metz said she was a speech and hearing graduate, Donaldson’s response was, “You’ve got to be kidding me! I was a speech and hearing graduate.”
They graduated seven years apart—Metz in 1968 and Donaldson in 1975, yet they had many of the same professors and shared similar memories from the tough instructors to the interesting personalities.
The more they chatted, the more they realized how deep the connections went.
Metz started her career working with special needs children in Hancock County schools and then was hired at Blanchard Valley School for individuals with developmental disabilities. She was the teacher for a newly formed class of eight nonverbal children between ages six and nine.
She later was hired at Blanchard Valley School to lead for an infant stimulation program, where she worked with infants and toddlers, followed by time with Findlay City Schools and then Seneca County Schools as a speech therapist. The last eight years in a school setting were as special education supervisor with Seneca County, working primarily with youths with disabilities beyond speech, she said.
Donaldson also found her first job in education after graduating from Miami in June 1975.. She had returned to Bowling Green and was living with her parents Kathleen and Malcolm Coffman when a neighbor alerted her to a speech therapist position at Wood Lane School.
“I got the position and thought I’d work about a year and a half, while I lived with my parents. Thirty years later, I retired, “ Donaldson said about her rewarding career at Wood Lane. She was the therapist for the school and the sheltered workshop for a while until they hired another therapist for the workshop.
For the last five years of her career, she worked in the early intervention program, which would have been similar to Metz’s infant stimulation program, Donaldson said, further aligning their paths from college and beyond.
During the interview for this story, they discovered yet another connection. After retiring from working with children, both Metz and Donaldson found rewards in working with older adults in nursing home settings. Metz had returned to her hometown in Piqua and decided she was not quite ready to be completely done working. ”I ended up getting jobs at nursing homes and my background helped me because I dealt with people who had strokes and needed a lot of language activities,” she said.
Donaldson found her way to Otterbein Portage Valley Senior Living Community outside of Pemberville, where her parents had moved after her mother was diagnosed with vascular dementia.
“Some of the same interventions we put in place for kids with disabilities is no different than what we did with adults,” Donaldson said. “It’s some of the same interventions, same strategies that go across all levels.”
They also shared an appreciation for working closely with occupational and physical therapists throughout their careers.
The value of connection
The two women, whose careers revolved around the importance of speech and language, were still surprised at how much they have gained after learning about their similar lifepaths.
“I’ve had a lot of connections with people in my career, but this connection has been wonderful,” Metz said. “As I’m making this very difficult adjustment with being blind, along comes this very upbeat woman delivering my meals on Wednesday, and we share so much in common.”
Even if the visit is short because of other deliveries or traffic, “Sue comes in, tells me what I’m having for lunch, which when you can’t see, somedays it’s hard to tell what I’m diving into,” Metz said. “Her visits leave me with a real warm feeling because she and I have shared so much in a short period of time.”
For Donaldson, who has made connections with others during her 20 years as a volunteer driver, said, “This has been the closest connection of similarities all the way back to college, careers and our basic delivery of service philosophy.”
Drivers needed; connections delivered
As Donaldson reflected on the camaraderie of the connection with Metz, she was struck by how much that connection meant to her, and how telling that story might encourage other people to volunteer to be a driver to find their own connections.
“We are always trying to get more drivers to deliver meals,” she said.
With approximately 600 meals prepared and delivered five days a week, having enough drivers is a common issue, said Stephanie Spencer, volunteer coordinator.
There are six routes in Bowling Green and additional routes throughout the county. “With 40-45 drivers helping each week, we still have a need for regular drivers and substitutes,” she said. “Openings for drivers are most often Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Staff or substitutes regularly need to fill in.”
Each route takes from an hour to an hour and a half, she said. Volunteers enjoy seeing the people, usually between 10 and 30 people. “They can be that touchpoint, but they also make connections with the homebound seniors. Finding those things in common is part of the fun,” Spencer said.
“There’s always a connection, which is why talking about this was so appropriate,” Donaldson said. “It’s a way you can share with people, and you never know when you walk into someone’s place when you might have a connection that is as phenomenal as this one.”
The relationship is beyond just delivering meals or receiving meals. “When I lost my husband, Nancy checked in with me to make sure I was OK. This is why I come back–because of the people. It keeps me sustained every day,” Donaldson said. “It’s a really good thing.”
Interested in making new connections as a volunteer driver for the home-delivered meals program? Contact the Wood County Committee on Aging online or by phone at 419-353-5661.
