On Thursdays, my friend and frequent walking companion, Molly, doesn’t walk with our regular group. Both he and his wife Dawn are absent from the waterfront on that day. Instead, they spend the morning working as volunteers at the Prince Charles Hospital, in the nearby suburb of Chermside.
Molly has told me that his association with the hospital started one day,18 years ago, when he took his mother to the cardiac unit at Prince Charles for a periodic check-up. At that time his mother was still physically and mentally well. However, she has since passed away, after reaching the amazing age of 106.
While visiting the hospital, all those years ago, Molly became aware of the kindness and helpfulness of the volunteers who were offering their services there and this prompted him to ask one of them more about what was involved in volunteering. He listened carefully to his response and then said to him: “I wouldn’t mind doing that! And I’m sure my wife wouldn’t.” As Molly explained it to me, the volunteer then replied: “So, come with me”, and, in Molly’s words, “we went out to the office and we signed up then and there”.
With Molly’s permission I’ll give you a little background on his earlier life. He was born in Lancashire, in a little fishing village called Fleetwood, in the uppermost corner of Lancashire’s Fylde Coast. This is in the north-west of England, not far from the well-known Lakes District and close to the resort of Blackpool. He went to primary and secondary school in Fleetwood and, unsurprisingly to me, did well and became a prefect.
What I found interesting from talking with Molly was that his early life had followed almost the same path as mine had. When he was 15 or 16 years old, he too had wanted to become a ship’s steward. It had been his ambition to go to Liverpool and to enrol to be trained at the steward’s school there. At that early age, Molly also had been keen to experience different things and to “see the world”, just as I had.
His parents, although sympathetic, had encouraged him, however, to embark on a different career, one in which he subsequently became very successful. His life would undoubtedly have turned out very differently if he had become a ship’s steward, but Molly, as he reflected on this, has had no regrets about the path chosen. “It was obviously beneficial, because otherwise I would not have met Dawn.”
Molly told me that both he and Dawn have found that working as volunteers at the hospital has been satisfying and rewarding. He started in the intensive care unit (ICU), where he is still working today and Dawn does administration work in another part of the hospital, after which she also helps in the ICU. According to Molly there are more than a hundred volunteers at Prince Charles and last year they collectively volunteered 24600 hours. Molly and Dawn are now in their 19th year of service and, in addition to their regular Thursdays, they also work as volunteers on most Saturdays.
In Molly’s words: “You meet a lot of nice people from all over Australia, but mainly from Queensland, because Prince Charles is one of the main hospitals for heart and lung disease. You do little things for them, see how they are going, tell them about the little perks they can get such as cheaper parking. We greet the relatives of those in intensive care, we make sure they’re okay, comfortable in the waiting rooms. We are the liaison between the staff in ICU and the visitors. It’s busy. Yesterday there were 4 operations!”
Molly showed me a copy of a book designed to help patients to plan for their cardiac surgery, and to assist them in their recovery. In the book, “Your guide to having Cardiac Surgery”, I counted no less than 34 photos of Molly! The photos illustrate correct posture, breathing exercises and leg, shoulder, trunk, neck, forearm and upper limb strength exercises. It must have taken a great deal of time and effort to put himself into the correct positions to enable the photos to be taken. There is even a photo of Molly lying down in a hospital bed, which I can safely show you because no one would be able to recognise him in the hospital gown and with the oxygen mask covering his face.
The hospital also made a video of Molly doing exercises, which is shown continuously to patients in the ICU section of the hospital, and which prompted someone to jokingly say to him “You’ll be immortal”.
Molly contributes to the community in many other ways as well. He is on the Committee of the Sandgate Probus club, the social committee of his retirement village and a former president and life member of several local sporting and social clubs.
I regard Molly not only as a very good and loyal friend but also as an inspiration to me and to all those who know him. As far as I am concerned, he and Dawn are two of our “Unsung Heroes”.
O.P.
P.S. We’ll reflect, next Sunday, on what happened to the Turrbal people, who lived here for centuries.