Andrea Durrant

History 2700 Service Learning

Reflections on Life History

          For my history service learning project I chose to focus on personal history.  I think it is so important for everyone to record their own life history because that is essentially what we study in history classes.  We study a broad compilation of individual peoples’ lives to get an idea of what has happened in the past.  I wanted to serve the community by helping individuals record their life history and making that information available to the community by giving a copy to the SUU library. 

          I attended the volunteer fair in the Ballroom of the Sharwan Smith Center and learned of the opportunity to volunteer at Utah Heritage Hospice, an organization located here in Cedar City at the Kolob Care Center.  Hospice cares for terminally ill patients who are usually not expected to live more than six months.  There are full time nurses and doctors that give constant care, and do what they can to fulfill the patients’ needs.  I got the volunteer information at the Volunteer Fair and contacted the volunteer coordinator, Angela Cluff, (see attachment) in St. George and she contacted the Cedar City representative.  I was given a stack of papers to be fill out and given to Hospice so I could become a volunteer.  I was also given some guidelines on how to be an effective Hospice volunteer.  (see attachment)  I told him about my project plan and he agreed to find a patient who would be interested in participating, and who was cognitively healthy enough to be able to recall details of his or her life.  A patient named Larry Jones agreed to participate and I set up a time I could come to Hospice and meet Larry and his wife, Ann.  I came and introduced myself and chatted with them over lunch.  Larry has Parkinson’s disease and it is in its final stages.  He’s had it for over twenty years now.  He can’t talk much at all and his muscle movement is very limited.  Larry is often in a lot of pain with headaches and sores from being constantly bedridden.  Some days are better than others but he can rarely say more than a few soft words at a time.  Larry’s wonderful wife, Ann, did much of the talking.  She is very healthy and energetic.  I told them my idea and that I wanted to visit with them a lot and record as much of Larry’s life history as we could before the semester ended.  Ann was excited about the idea because they had not written journals or recorded much, if any, of their personal history.  I told her I would bring a hand held tape recorder and ask her and Larry questions and talk about anything they’d like recorded.  I would then take the tape home and transcribe it on a computer.  So I set up a time to meet and began recording. 

          Over the next month or so, I visited Larry and Ann at Hospice about eight different times and spent many hours transcribing the interviews at home.  I usually visited at lunch time when Ann was there helping Larry eat his lunch.  (Larry’s muscle movement is so limited that simply raising a spoon to his mouth is often too difficult.)  Ann told me all about Larry’s childhood, his family, his schooling, his interests and talents, his life on the farm, their marriage and family life, their beliefs, many stories and experiences, and life in general.  Before I visited I would prepare a list of questions or subjects I wanted to talk about that day.  I would start the conversation and encourage Ann to elaborate and talk about whatever came to her mind.  I tried to start out with the basics, such as full name, birth date, parents’ names, and place of birth.  I basically directed the conversation in chronological order.  We talked about Larry’s childhood first.  He was born in Cedar City on a farm.  He was the second youngest of six kids.  We moved on to his early adulthood and I learned that he served in the Korean war for two years.  He went to SUU, which was then CSU, and met Ann and they were married.   They raised five children of their own and worked hard on a sheep farm for many years.  We talked about how different Cedar City was when they were young.  It was so interesting to learn more and more every visit about Larry’s life and the many things he accomplished.  I feel like I know him so well, yet he couldn’t say more than a few words a day. 

I addressed many of the questions to Larry and sometimes get one or two word replies; then Ann would go further in depth.  It was interesting to see what kind of things Larry took the effort to say.  In other words, what he could say meant a lot.  For example, Larry served in the Korean War and I asked him what he thought of the Korean people.  He said two words—meek and humble.   I hadn’t heard him say more than yes or no before that.  I knew Larry had strong feelings about the Korean people because of those two words that he had mustered the strength to say.  Larry has a great memory.  Ann would be telling a story and ask Larry about a detail and he would always remember.  On one occasion she asked him what kind of car one of his friends drove before they were married and he remember the exact model.  I often thought about how much Larry must want to say, but can’t be heard.  As Ann was telling me all she could remember, Larry must have recalled so many stories of his past that he couldn’t tell like he surely wanted to.

Ann and Larry have become dear friends.  I felt closer to each of them after each visit.  I admire Larry so much for what he accomplished and how strong he has been throughout his time of illness.  I appreciated each time he tried to make eye contact with me and each time he mustered a smile.  I want to adopt Ann as my own grandmother.  She is one of the funniest ladies I’ve ever met and it was just a delight to be with her.  We laughed a lot and I really enjoyed listening to her stories.  She said some things I will never forget.  She was telling me what she loved about Larry and one thing she pointed out was that he was so kind to his mother.  She told me that’s what I need to look for in the man I marry—someone who is kind to his mother.  When Ann was talking about her parents she said, “They could swear a ring around the moon and never say the same word twice!”  Ann worked at Zion’s National Park while they were engaged and Larry was still in Cedar.  She said he “whistled down” every night after work to see her.  She turned to Larry and said, “You kept the trail hot, didn’t ya Lar?”  Ann always keeps me laughing. 

This opportunity to serve Ann and Larry was worth more than anything I could have done because I felt so in touch with what humanity is all about—developing loving relationships, showing empathy, and realizing the beauty of life.  After growing to love and care about Ann and Larry, as well as making friends with several other Hospice patients, I have a better perspective on life.  There’s so many times I’ve seen people just like Larry, but I haven’t stopped to think what a long, rich life they’ve lived and how much wisdom they must have to share.  If I took the time to think of others in this way, I might be a little more sincere and kind to people whose paths I cross.  I might take a little more time to talk to them, or to tell them how much I appreciate them.  This experience also motivated me to cherish the time I have with a healthy body.  I need to always be actively engaged in a good cause so that I can grow, become wiser, and have experiences that I will able to look on and smile.  

Recording his personal history was not the only way I hoped to serve Larry.  I wanted to serve a person with a terminal disease by trying to help them realize that they’ve lived a rich, valuable life.  I thought that if I could ask them questions that would possibly provoke them to think a little more in depth about their life experiences, it might give them a little more sense of closure, or satisfaction with the life they’ve lived.  I hoped it would bring them some joy in their monotonous days to able to reflect on the joyous experiences they’ve had and evoke memories that bring them happiness.  It was wonderful to see the joy in Ann’s face as she recounted so many experiences she and Larry had shared together.  I think if I were in Larry’s situation, one of the most valuable things I would possess is the memories that make up my life.  I think it is just as important to record those memories as it is to think about them and how much they’ve made you grow. So especially in Larry’s case, who has a disease that will take his life shortly, I think Ann and I were doing a service for him as we talked and reminisced.   

          The task of transcribing from the tape recorder was time consuming but I liked the project because I enjoy typing.  Usually after each interview, so that I wouldn’t fall behind, I would go home and transcribe what had been said that day.  I would press play and type as I listened until I got behind.  Then I would stop the tape and finish typing what I remembered had been said.  Then I would press play and again start typing furiously.  I kept the document in interview format and italicized my questions.  After each visit I would also fill out a volunteer note that recorded what type of volunteering I was doing and for how long.  (see attachment)     When I had competed transcribing the interviews, I printed out a copy and gave to Ann to make corrections on details.  It was often hard to hear the tape recorder so I left parts that she could fill in.  Ann was very cooperative and although it took longer than we both expected, she made all the necessary corrections and returned the copy to me.  I then edited document and prepared it for printing.  Ann gave me some pictures of Larry and her and I used the Photoshop computer program to arrange the pictures on two pages to include with the interview.  I then typed a title page and put it all in a report cover.  I also printed out a copy that I delivered to Professor Seegmiller in Special Collections at the SUU Library.  She is in charge of the oral history section at the library and she took the finished interview and filed it with the other oral histories she has collected.  It is now available to the community and I think anyone who reads it will be personally enriched and educated as to what life was like here in Cedar years ago.

          I think this project gave me a much better understanding of the fact that learning and service go hand in hand.  I learned that once you get involved with an organization and volunteer regularly, there are many more opportunities that open up.  Another patient that I befriended wants me to help him with his personal history.  I was able to help a patient when he needed a nurse and couldn’t find one.  One elderly woman needed a friend and some attention so I painted her nails and helped her eat.  A nurse wasn’t available at lunch time one day to help some patients eat their food, so I was able to take her place and help as I visited with the patients.  I met a lot of people throughout my experience at Hospice that I look forward to working with again.   It will be much easier, now that I’ve established myself as a reliable volunteer, to find more opportunities in the future.  I learned that in my career, whatever I do, I need to really make a connection with the people I work with.  I need to make sure their needs are met.  I learned a lot about Care Centers in specific.  It takes a lot of time to care for someone who is dependant on you.  Larry was in a lot of pain for a time because the nurses hadn’t been turning him as often as they should.  I hadn’t thought about how much they are in need of other peoples’ care.   Larry doesn’t even have the strength to turn over in bed.  I observed some employees who were genuinely happy to help and who seemed to really care about the patients.  I learned that’s the kind of career I want to have—one in which I can make a difference in peoples’ lives and show them I care.  I noticed that’s the kind of treatment that the patients at Hospice, and anywhere else, needed the most—someone showing them love, attention, and friendship.