After reading the article from Austin, Texas, -about the way Smile On Seniors makes such a difference...I wanted to share a story. Something that I was a part of last summer....
Every Shabbas, various SOS volunteers visit a local senior facility here in West Orange, NJ. I was one of those volunteers on a day in July. Looking back, it's pretty amazing to me that when I awoke on that particular day, I had no idea that I was going to make such a difference to one particular person in my life.
I had seen my SOS buddy the prior day and she had agreed to meet me in the lobby of the building for the Shabbat program. Well, she was always on time. She said she would be there, and I was sure she would be. I waited, trying to stall the start of the program for everyone...and began to worry. I phoned up to her room several times, but no answer. I thought that perhaps she went out for the day. No one had seen her recently. Not knowing what to make of it, and just to be sure all was okay, I decided to take the elevator up to her room. As I stepped on to her floor, approaching her room, I heard moaning. Her door was unlocked. I entered, calling her name...only to find her face down on the floor of her apartment. She was concious, but in pain. I pressed the button on her wrist alert band--with no response. I didn't see the phone...I yelled out the door for assistance, and an employee came. I had the employee stay with my buddy, certain not to move her at all. I had to get immediate medical attention. I have never run so fast in my entire life. I knew what I had to do. Within minutes, a full medical staff was there as my buddy was taken to the ER via ambulance. Thank G-d I was in the right place at the right time. Fortunately, she recovered from her fall with a broken wrist and nothing worse. It could have been much worse. She said she was walking to the bathroom without her walker. I'm sure she never did that again. And that day was confirmation of how very much the Smile On Seniors programs, throughtout the world, can really make a difference in the life of a senior. I am glad I was able to help.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
The Lancman's West Orange NJ
Copy of letter sent to SOS Headquarters:
Dear Rabbi Klar,
Happy Holidays!
I want to thank you for the Smile On Seniors Program. My mother, Phoebe L., lives in Brighton Gardens . Her mood improves every time she had a Chabad visitor. Yesterday she was able to say the blessing with the Lulav and Etrog – it was a wonderful day for her.
Please use this small donation to support this great program. It makes a HUGE difference.
Sincerely,
Barbara L. ( Plantation , Florida 33324 )
Dear Rabbi Klar,
Happy Holidays!
I want to thank you for the Smile On Seniors Program. My mother, Phoebe L., lives in Brighton Gardens . Her mood improves every time she had a Chabad visitor. Yesterday she was able to say the blessing with the Lulav and Etrog – it was a wonderful day for her.
Please use this small donation to support this great program. It makes a HUGE difference.
Sincerely,
Barbara L. ( Plantation , Florida 33324 )
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Smile On Seniors Austin Texas
Tuesday The Rabbi Was Late AUSTIN, TEXAS -- (October 7, 2008)Malka Phillips
(lubavitch.com) It was a beautiful Tuesday afternoon in Austin. The sun beamed overhead in a cloudless blue sky, and throngs of Austinites were outdoors enjoying the balmy temperatures.
But for 80 year-old Mrs. Wald, the day had turned dark and frightening. Alone in her room in the senior citizens home, Wald had lost her footing and fell hard to the floor. Her head cracked against a table as she fell, and she now lay bleeding profusely and unable to call for help.
Frantically, she pressed her panic button, kept for moments just like these, but the mechanism failed.
Desperately clinging to consciousness, she tried to calculate how long it would take for someone to come by, for her absence to become noticeable, counting the passing minutes that, judging by the rapid flow of blood loss from the wound on her head, she evidently did not have.
Then Anna heard a knock on her door. To her great relief, someone had come. Someone had stopped by to visit her. Someone would find her before it was too late.
Unable to move or call out, she waited. Whoever had come to visit her would alert a nurse. The nurse would open the door to check if she was all right.
Knocking gently on the other side of the door was Rabbi Yosef Levertov, director of Chabad activities in Austin, with rabbinical student Eli Phillips.
With the sun now low on this first day of Rosh Hashana, and with a two-mile walk back to the Chabad center ahead of them, Levertov and Phillips were wrapping up their visit, part of Chabad's newly inaugurated Smile on Seniors program, making one more stop to visit another patient that the nurses at the desk told them, was Jewish.
"The nurse who'd given me Mrs. Wald's name, came with me to the door, and was surprised that Mrs. Wald wasn't responding when we knocked," Rabbi Levertov told Lubavitch.com.
More nurses were called, the door was opened, and EMT's were quickly dispatched, rushing Anna to Seton Medical Center where she would be treated for her critical head wound.
By now, congregants at Chabad were worried. The Rabbi was now more than an hour late for the second evening of Rosh Hashana services. But greeting his congregants after the long uphill walk back, he humbly told his anxious congregation, "I think we saved someone's life today."
Smile on Seniors of Austin
(lubavitch.com) It was a beautiful Tuesday afternoon in Austin. The sun beamed overhead in a cloudless blue sky, and throngs of Austinites were outdoors enjoying the balmy temperatures.
But for 80 year-old Mrs. Wald, the day had turned dark and frightening. Alone in her room in the senior citizens home, Wald had lost her footing and fell hard to the floor. Her head cracked against a table as she fell, and she now lay bleeding profusely and unable to call for help.
Frantically, she pressed her panic button, kept for moments just like these, but the mechanism failed.
Desperately clinging to consciousness, she tried to calculate how long it would take for someone to come by, for her absence to become noticeable, counting the passing minutes that, judging by the rapid flow of blood loss from the wound on her head, she evidently did not have.
Then Anna heard a knock on her door. To her great relief, someone had come. Someone had stopped by to visit her. Someone would find her before it was too late.
Unable to move or call out, she waited. Whoever had come to visit her would alert a nurse. The nurse would open the door to check if she was all right.
Knocking gently on the other side of the door was Rabbi Yosef Levertov, director of Chabad activities in Austin, with rabbinical student Eli Phillips.
With the sun now low on this first day of Rosh Hashana, and with a two-mile walk back to the Chabad center ahead of them, Levertov and Phillips were wrapping up their visit, part of Chabad's newly inaugurated Smile on Seniors program, making one more stop to visit another patient that the nurses at the desk told them, was Jewish.
"The nurse who'd given me Mrs. Wald's name, came with me to the door, and was surprised that Mrs. Wald wasn't responding when we knocked," Rabbi Levertov told Lubavitch.com.
More nurses were called, the door was opened, and EMT's were quickly dispatched, rushing Anna to Seton Medical Center where she would be treated for her critical head wound.
By now, congregants at Chabad were worried. The Rabbi was now more than an hour late for the second evening of Rosh Hashana services. But greeting his congregants after the long uphill walk back, he humbly told his anxious congregation, "I think we saved someone's life today."
Smile on Seniors of Austin
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