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At our next LOH meeting the idea was put
to the group and we decided it was a fantastic thing to do and that
the holidays would be the best time to carry this out.
Over the next few weeks through several e-mails and a couple more
LOH meetings we picked a date and set forth on our mission.
Thanksgiving weekend was chosen and now we needed to know who we
were adopting for the day. What better time to start giving back to
the community then at the start of the best time of the year….other
than riding season of course!
We wanted to get together with patients who had no family around or
no visitors. We wanted to cheer up people who needed it most. That
was our goal and we were going to reach it. Suzy made contact with
the director at Golden Hill and we were on our way. It took several
calls and some persistence, but we finally got a list of patients
that fit our criteria. In all, there were 15. There were both men
and women. Some of whom were physically well, but not mentally.
Some that had some type of physical impairments, but had all of
their wits about them. Some were not doing well at all. It did not
matter who got whom, we all just wanted to make someone happy. We
divided up the list and went shopping! To some that is the fun
part, but not to us, to us, the fun would come later, when we got to
the nursing home.
Sunday, November 25
was the LOH Bridgeport Chapter’s visit to Golden Hill Nursing Home.
Being that this was an LOH event, those of us who ride our own
bikes, broke out the warm clothes and mounted up for our adventure.
The weather was perfect for riding even though we are not polar
bears. Jane Shepard, Karen Ligammari and I rode our bikes to meet up
with Patty, Joyce Mauro and Suzy. Also along for the experience
were Suzy's daughter, Sarah Pressler and my daughter, Julia
DeCecco. Julia spent a few hours making pine cone ornaments. Being
that we have about 3,000 of them in our yard, it was tough to pick
just the right ones, but she managed to and made a lot of people
happy with them. Sarah had been looking forward to this day for
weeks and was ready to go almost as soon as we pulled in the parking
lot.
I had Julia and Sarah
lead the troops into the lobby carrying the LOH flag between them.
It was like a parade of the Ladies of Harley. We were loaded up
with gifts and ready to go! The smiles in the lobby from staff and
other patients were signs that this was going to be a terrific
day!!!
The afternoon started
with the director lady trying to figure out how we were going to get
all of these people together. But, being the resourceful gals that
we are, we came up with a workable solution. We made stops on both
floors and covered just about all of our intended adoptees. We had a
lot of help from the staff. The nurses and aids set about rounding
up all of the patients. It seems that one of the gentlemen was
“missing”. Normally, he never leaves the home, but for some reason,
he could not be located. Hopefully, he was shy and was just
hiding.
All of the ladies
that attended each "adopted" a person or people for the day and
picked up gifts ranging from a sweat suit to slippers to radios to
Harley Stuff. Thankfully, we had some extra gifts to hand out,
because we attracted a lot of attention and got some unexpected
visitors. Jane brought motorcycle hats for the men and some HOG &
LOH pins for the ladies. Their eyes all lit up when either she
placed the hats on their heads or she put the pins on their shirts.
She even bought some lick & stick temporary tattoos for them to
try. It was hilarious!
Thanks to Joyce and
her song books we sang Christmas carols. And, yes, some of us did
need to check on the words for some of the songs. However, we did
change the words to the 12 days of Christmas. Instead of "A
Partridge in a Pear Tree" we substituted “A Harley in a Gar-age".
And, instead of “5 Golden Rings” we sang “5 Chrome Rims”, thanks to
Karen’s quick thinking in the middle of the song. We sounded pretty
good for a bunch of people singing off key! Some of the residents
joined in and all of them were smiling. I am not so sure if they
were smiling with us or laughing at us, but either way, it was a
terrific experience. Our Junior honorary LOH gals, Julia and Sarah
were fantastic with all of these people. If they had any fear or
hesitations, they did not show it. Both girls put on their biggest
smiles and were as cheery as they could possibly be. Sarah has
experience there, as she is a volunteer...following right along in
her Mom's footsteps. Suzy worked there 35 years ago, so this holds
a special place in her heart.
Karen made a friend
for life in the name of Richard. Rich was an iron worker and was
big into Harleys! He had on his HD sweatshirt and a HD blanket on
his lap. Unfortunately, he suffered a serious brain injury falling
five stories down an elevator shaft in which he was working. Karen
spent quite a bit of time with him and even brought him down to the
front entrance to see the bikes. He was fascinated and totally
overjoyed when Karen asked him to start the bike up. As she sat in
the saddle, he pressed the magic button and the Harley roared. The
smile on his face was priceless, and one most of us will not soon
forget.
Jane and I also
brought our bikes right up to the door so that some of the other
patients could see the Ladies on their Harleys. There were lots of
pictures taken and even the maintenance guy ran to get his camera
when we were getting ready to leave on the bikes. He wanted
something to remind all of the residents about our visit. As it all
came to an end, the three of us started up the motors and gave the
official Harley cheer. Thankfully, there were no complaints about
the noise. We then rode off to the applause of the people we were
there to bring a bit of sunshine to. These people were genuinely
happy to have us there; even those who were a bit shy came out of
their shell.
It is heart warming
to see bona fide gratitude in someone's eyes. This shows
what the true spirit of the holiday season is, no matter whom you
are or where you come from, as long as you give from your heart, you
will be rewarded in some way. I know that I speak for all of the
Ladies in saying that we were greatly compensated by their smiles,
laughter and the gleam of hope in their eyes. They all deserve
better, but this is their life and they are content in it. Our job
was to make a small part of it just a little bit better. I know
that we did that and I look forward to visiting with them again.
See Angie's pictures here. |
