VOLUNTEER STORY – VISITING SCHEME
Anne Shields, Visiting Scheme Volunteer: “It’s a great thing to do – you will get a lot
out of it”
Anne Shields has been a Visiting Scheme Volunteer for over 20
years. “I first heard about volunteering when a slip of paper was
dropped through my letterbox. I thought that it seemed like a very
nice thing to do as I don’t have any older relations and it would fit
in with my, then, young family. So that’s how it started and I have
never looked back.”
Anne remembers the names of all her clients over the years.
“Sissy was the first person I visited. I’d make her a cup of tea and
she’d tell me all about her childhood and how she helped her father in the smoke house
with the fish. Then there was Elizabeth. She had worked in service and used to tell me all
about it. She collected everything to do with owls, there were owls everywhere. She wrote
lovely poetry too – I still have some of it.
“Betty just enjoyed a chat about everyday things and Mary who I visited for three months
was always so pleased to see me. I visited Kathleen every week for 11 years. She was
very pleasant. We’d talk about gardening and family and during the school holidays I’d stay
much longer.”
But it was Catherine that Anne really clicked with. “She was one of those people you feel
you’ve known forever despite the fact she was 92. She used to cook for me and said that it
was a pleasure to have someone to cook for. She lost her husband and son within 11
months of each other but being Scottish she was very resilient. Somehow we felt we were
meant to meet; we’d both lived in Egypt and her husband had been in the RAF whilst my
father was in the army. She’d done a lot of travelling with her husband, so she had plenty
of stories to tell but she was also interested to hear about my life too.
“I’m now visiting Lillian. She’s almost blind but if I wear bright colours and something
sparkly she can just about make me out. We talk about how people’s lives were years ago,
it’s very interesting.”
I ask Anne how she thinks things have changed for older people over the years. “I think
they are getting a lot more help now. In the past they tended to be forgotten. But they still
get lonely.” Anne has a few words of encouragement for potential volunteers: “It’s a great
thing to do, you will get a lot back out of it, it is so interesting. Older people know so much
and you can learn from them.”
November 2013