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Highlands Today

Sisters volunteer their time at Palms

Jasmina Meyer, Highlands Today

From left: JoAnn Ulm and Marian Speranza help Theresa DeStefano make a phone call recently at the Palms of Sebring.

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By Christy Swift

For the Highlands Today

Published: November 2, 2009

SEBRING - As Marian Speranza and JoAnn Ulm walk through the halls of the Palms of Sebring's health care center, shaky arms reach out from wheelchairs to grab their hands. Tired faces light up, and eyes follow them, vying for their attention.

The two sisters have been volunteering at the center for 18 years.

"It's our second home," said Speranza.

Although the Sebring residents are in their 80s themselves, they spend approximately four hours a day, seven days a week at the facility, helping out the 60 residents on the first floor and making life a little easier for them.

They perform a variety of tasks for the aging men and women, including writing letters for them, taking out their mail, making grocery runs and straightening up their rooms. They help clean and match wardrobes, place phone calls, and bring a thirsty elderly person some ice water, coffee or a soda.

"Sometimes their A.C. is too cold or they've dropped something," added Ulm, who wears a permanent smile. "Sometimes they can't reach their call button."

The sisters first began volunteering after a friend moved into the center. They came to visit him while he was there and made such an impression on the staff that they were asked if they would come back and volunteer on a regular basis.

At first, Speranza was ready to say no, but in the end the two women began putting in between 1,400 and 1,600 hours of volunteer work annually at the Palms.

"You keep coming back because you meet people. You meet another one and you miss them. You get attached," said Ulm, making her way through the hall to greet a retired chiropractor in a wheelchair wearing a pair of nasal cannulae.

Sometimes patients just want Ulm or Speranza to give them some company. As Speranza walked down the hall, a woman in a navy headscarf and white sweater grabbed a hold of her.

"She's almost blind," said Speranza, wheeling her down to her room and helping her to get settled. "She wants me to sit with her and she wants me to take her back to her room." She added under her breath, "This is one of my favorites. I don't like to have a favorite, but . . . "

Odessa Hollister, who has been at the center for nine years, was dressed in a magenta outfit with matching dark lipstick. "I love them," said Hollister of the sisters. "JoAnn is my buddy."

She went on to show off the bedspread Ulm had picked up for her.

"It's hard to find a twin," admitted Ulm, smoothing out the blue and white bed cover.

Ulm and Speranza also make sure that all new residents receive a stuffed animal upon their arrival. Patients usually stay for a short while to recover from hip surgery or receive therapies, but some residents remain in the center for the longer term.

Some even wait by the door for Ulm and Speranza to arrive.

The sisters usually stay until suppertime and leave after helping residents to get seated in the dining room with their beverages.

"We used to stay longer. We used to stay and feed. Now you have to be a CNA to do that," said Ulm.

Ulm also used to do manicures, but mentioned that these days in order to care for patients' nails, a licensed cosmetologist is required.

But the sisters are cheerful, nonetheless, for the things that they can do for the Palms health care center residents, including taking them for a walk outdoors, gifting them inexpensive jewelry, and telling them jokes.

Sometimes they even joke back.

"She is a sweet lady," said one woman of Ulm, who replied: "You are gonna give me a big head."

"She already has one!" piped up resident Janine Mann with a straight face.

There is also a bittersweet aspect to this type of volunteering that Ulm and Speranza know well.

"It seems like you lose part of your family when you lose them," said Ulm, remembering patients who had passed away.

"Everybody has something new to tell you," she added. "I go in every door."

Speranza and Ulm intend to continue going in every door, every day of the week to spend time with these elderly patients, who are also their friends. "I call (JoAnn) 'the angel'," whispered one resident between breathing treatments. "I really don't know what I'd do without her."

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