Nancy, 82

“I’ve been a volunteer all my life. Early in life, my mother instilled in us that the more you gave of yourself the more you received. And I’ve always lived that. This is a very lovely center. We have a lot of extremely talented people here who are all willing to give of themselves, and that makes it very nice. We each help each other and yet a lot of us do certain things. I like to do the decorating, because when the center opened, I said to the director at the time, ‘the place needs some color,’ so every month I do all the decorations. This is my second home. They say they’re going to put a bed here for me because I’m here all the time. Someone has to pick me up and take me home, so I’m very blessed that I have this place to come to. I had surgery recently and I can’t see out of one eye. I just live down the street, and I used to walk it, but I can’t judge steps and curbs anymore so I can’t go outside. But I won’t let that get to me. I’m very blessed. I do all the things I can do. I kid the men and I tell them, ‘you have to hold my hand when we go outside.’ And I’ll say, ‘after all, that’s an old lady’s way of getting a man to hold her hand.’”