Circles of Care Makes a Difference in Local's Lives
Charlotte Edwards and Circles of Care Volunteer Michael Young at the Fred Meyer Pharmacy in The Dalles. Photo Credit: Cole Goodwin
By Cole Goodwin
Charlotte Edwards and Circles of Care volunteer Michael Young.
It’s 10 A.M on a Thursday and I’m standing outside the home of Charlotte Ann Edwards, age 69. Charlotte, who is blind, moved to The Dalles from Louisville Kentucky two years ago.
Charlotte participates in Circles of Care, a program by Age+ which pairs seniors with local volunteers who provide assistance with everyday tasks such as check-ins, transportation, and grocery shopping.
Scott McKay, Community Liason for Age+ greets me and invites me in to meet Charlotte and Michael Young.
Charlotte’s home is humble and clean, with a practical layout that allows her to easily navigate the space as a woman who is blind..
We greet one another and sit down to chat and discuss the plan: Today I’ll be meeting with Scott McKay before tagging along with Charlotte and Michael as they go about a typical morning with Circles of Care.
Scott tells me that the program is in need of new volunteers.
The number of seniors in need of assistance far outweighs the number of available volunteers in the area. Currently there are 35 clients and 16 volunteers enrolled in Circles of Care in The Dalles and Hood River.
“Unfortunately we don't operate in Washington although they have a great program in Klickitat County called Volunteer Connections which is similar to Circles of Care,” shares Scott.
Charlotte says that if it wasn’t for Circles of Care not only would she not she’s not sure how she’d be getting her needs met as a blind woman living in The Dalles, OR.
“Well, it’s enabled me to be able to cook,” she says, “because I get the items from the store and he takes me to the store. It enables me to do as many things as I can such as paying my bills and going to get prescriptions.”
Charlotte and Michael at Fred Meyer in The Dalles. Charlotte says she likes going to the store because it gets her out of the house and get some exercise.
“We do not have a drug delivery or a food delivery service here, in Louisville we had those, we just had to look for them and find them,” she says “But they don’t have anything like that here, so Michael has enabled me to get some of the things that I enjoy and the things that I need.”
She tells the story of how she and Michael were paired as client and volunteer.
“My son just did not have the time to give me,” said Charlotte “A caseworker gave me different telephone numbers to try and Gracen Bookmeyer, the coordinator for Age+ at the time, really helped me. The rest is history.”
At the time Michael had been paired with Charlotte since the two lived on the same street, in fact, Michael also volunteers helping two other clients that live on their street.
Charlotte and Michael hanging out in her home.
“I have a friend and a neighbor and a volunteer all in one,” said Charlotte. “He’s a kind of tall, good friendly guy.”
Michael who is now 67 said he and his wife ended up living in The Dalles by accident.
“We made a new year’s resolution on our honeymoon to just blow town,” he says. “We decided we’d spend a year preparing to leave and that’s what we did and that’s how we landed here in 1979. We had no idea where we were going. We were just rolling down the road. We had no kids or property, we were just young and dumb and enjoying life.”
He got involved with Age+ following a speech by Gracen Bookmeyer at the United Methodist Church.
“I’ve always admired people for what they did for others. And I felt like that was missing in my life. I had a big family and stressful job with long hours and just never did for others. And that’s really why I wanted to start and see what it was like. And it’s great. Better then a paycheck. And I teasingly tell everyone if they were paying me I would b*tch. It’s so rewarding. I just feel it every time I do something.”
In addition to helping her with basic tasks like going to the Grocery store, having Michael around helps to ease Charlotte’ isolation a little.
“I don’t see anybody except Michael and my son, that's it,” says Charlotte.
“There are lots of benefits to living alone, but there are really a lot of disadvantages,” says Charlotte.
Charlotte says she wishes she knew of other blind people in the area.
“I don’t really know if there’s that many blind people here and I wish there was someone I could connect with as a friend and not just a resource person,” she says.
Although Charlotte has never been able to see with her eyes, she still uses the word “see” to describe meeting with and being around others.
Charlotte was blinded as a baby. She was born premature and was placed in an incubator, however too much oxygen was released into her incubator, causing her to lose her sight, the eye disease is called retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).
“Back in the day they didn’t know how to regulate the oxygen in the incubator and so the oxygen did damage to my eyes…and my brain I think,” says Charlotte with a laugh.
“Anyway, and there were many of us who had that same situation that I went to school with,” she says.
Charlotte says since she was blind shortly after birth there are certain things she just has no idea how they “look” although she thinks she can see light, and can tell if it’s sunny, cloudy, or dark outside.
So what does Michael help Charlotte with?
“Just little things I need eyes to do,” says Charlotte.
Society it turns out is largely built by and for sighted people.
Charlotte reading in braille in her home.
So, Michael helps her with numerous tasks such as: using her braille label maker to label items in the house, computer tasks, the mail, transportation, grocery shopping, going to the pharmacy, doctor’s appointments and much much more.
“There have been times I haven’t been able to get a ride on the LINK Bus,” says Charlotte.
So Michael helps with that.
Sometimes Michael’s main job is just to be a set of eyes for Charlotte.
“Sometimes I’ll get some dirt or something on the floor and I’ll say ‘Hey Michael, what does this floor look like?’” she says.
And since most of Charlotte’s mail comes in print as opposed to braille, Michael also helps her with sorting the mail and paying bills.
Sometimes Charlotte makes a grocery list in braille, using her Perkin’s brailler, a kind of braille typewriter, she then has to dictate the list to Michael, who can’t read braille, so that they can be sure they don’t miss anything on the list.
Michael reads off the coupons to Charlotte.
Today the list consists of cooking making supplies, Orange Fanta (Charlotte’s favorite), cleaning supplies, a “ginormous” jar of pickles, easy bake items, and enough food for a week’s worth of meals.
Charlotte says she likes to have baking supplies on hand “just in case somebody asks me” to bake them something.
Although Charlotte is somewhat isolated due to accessibility issues, she keeps occupied listening audiobooks and music.
Her favorite genre of literature?
“Inspired romantic fiction,” she says with a laugh.
“I made a new years resolution, and it’s the first and only new years resolution I’ve ever made. I decided that last year I’m going to stop reading things that have a certain word in them that I cannot tolerate and read on a more Christian level.”
“I’ve gotten away from reading books with really bad language in them and I’m happier because of it,” she says.
Although she likes books she doesn't often visit the local library, and instead utilizes the state library's large collection of books for the blind.
Although Charlotte has an iphone, it’s largely unused.
“I’ve gotten this iPhone, which I really can’t use. But I have it so I can get internet service, mainly for Alexa,” she laughs.
“Ever since I’ve gotten back on the internet, Alexa and I have some pretty good conversations,” she laughs again.
Alexa helps her to build playlists of the music she likes.
As far as music goes, she clearly has a wide range of tastes and she starts listing so many genres it’s almost pointless to list them all here.
“I can tell you the genres I don’t like easier than the ones I do,” she says.
As far as TV goes, Charlotte’s not interested.
“I don’t have a TV and don’t want one,” she says.
She is interested in knitting and points out the handknitted headband she’s wearing.
“I knitted it myself on a loom,” she says.
“Even though I’m blind I have a vivid imagination of colors,” she says “Its just an imagination that’s all but yellow is my favorite, it’s my favorite color. So I made this out of yellow yarn.”
I tell her that Michael is wearing a yellow shirt which earns her approval.
“I wish there was somewhere where I could expand my knitting experience, I don’t know how to use needles,” she says. “I don’t know how to pick up a dropped stitch and I do it on the loom all the time and I don’t know why it happens but it does, and I don’t know how to pick them up so it’s made me not want to do any knitting for a while. But I’d really like to learn to use needles but it would take someone really patient to work with me. I think that would be great.”
Charlotte also attends St. Peter’s Catholic Church.
“I cantor there every other weekend,” she says.
With that we decide it’s time for us to go grocery shopping.
Charlotte says she enjoys going to the store as a way of getting out of the house.
Michael helps Charlotte to the car.
She leaves her cane behind as it isn’t particularly useful at the grocery store.
She says she used to have seeing-eye dogs but that recent changes in who is allowed seeing-eye dogs means that she no longer is able to get one.
“You have to know your way around the neighborhood where you live,” she says.
Charlotte is not currently able to navigate her neighborhood unassisted and arthritis in her knee makes it difficult to take long walks. But she still enjoys a stroll around the grocery store.
When we arrive at Fred Meyer Michael helps Charlotte out of the car and guides her to a shopping cart. He holds the front end of the cart loosely and guides her around the store as they check off item after item on the list until at last they have everything, including the all important Orange Fanta and her prescriptions from the pharmacy.
After a long afternoon of talking and shopping the pair are ready to return home to unload the groceries and ensure that Charlotte is stocked up for another week.
As we say our goodbyes, both Michael and Charlotte express a hope that their story will help inspire other volunteers to sign up to participate in Circles of Care.
Volunteers can apply online at ageplus.org/circles-of-care to learn more about how you can provide important support to older adults in your community or sign up yourself or an important Senior in your life to receive services. Volunteers have the option to choose how often and when they can volunteer.
If you would like more information or to participate in Circles of Care, please contact the community liaison at COCadmin@ageplus.org or 541-397-0724.
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