It’s a Calling : Volunteer’s Telephone Wellness Checks Put Senior Citizens at Ease

LAGUNA BEACH — Every weekday, 86-year-old Grace Henderson starts her day by making calls to a list of frail or elderly residents in South County, just to make sure they’re OK.

She’s been doing it for 18 years.

A South Coast Medical Center volunteer, Henderson joined the Laguna Beach hospital’s auxiliary in 1966, eventually becoming the cornerstone of the You Are Not Alone telephone program, which pays extra attention to patients after they return home.

“It only takes me about an hour and a half every morning to call all of them,” said Henderson, who makes the calls from her Dana Point home. “And I like to talk to people.”

It was 1978 when Henderson first began calling Margaret Pell, who has been hospitalized for various surgeries over the years. The 88-year-old San Clemente resident, who lived in Laguna Beach when Henderson first started calling, said it’s a comfort to know her telephone will ring each morning and Henderson will be at the other end of the line.

“As you grow older, you spend an awful lot of time alone, particularly when you’re disabled to the point where you no longer drive,” Pell said. “There’s very little social life, so the call every morning keeps you in contact with someone and, more or less, with the world in general outside.”

Hospital spokeswoman Maggie Baumann said Henderson is a dedicated worker. “She really becomes attached to her people,” Baumann said.

First up on Henderson’s list each morning is a 75-year-old woman who gets a call at 7:15 so the woman won’t miss church services. Henderson then calls six more women and one man, all of whom have had various health problems.

“I have one today who’s in such pain and is going to try to get to the doctor,” Henderson said this week. “I told her I’d call her back and check on her later.”

If no one answers, Henderson turns to her referral list, which includes the names and numbers of people to contact in case of an emergency, such as a relative, neighbor or doctor.

“One time I had a lady . . . [who] just forgot about me and left the house,” said Henderson, who wound up calling the police. The officers arrived just as the woman was returning home, Henderson said. After that, the officers began checking on the woman too.

Henderson became involved with the hospital auxiliary shortly after moving from Arcadia to Laguna Niguel in 1966. When she retired from her position as secretary-treasurer and part-owner of an Anaheim manufacturing company in 1978, she began putting in more hours for the hospital.

The You Are Not Alone program was launched by the hospital 21 years ago. Since then, a variety of volunteers have made the calls. Another longtime caller, Laguna Niguel resident Millie Wood, 80, gave her clients to Henderson after Wood had a stroke.

Currently, Henderson--who has logged more than 3,850 hours for the program--is its only volunteer.

“Right now Grace is handling everything that needs to be handled,” Baumann said.

Some of the people she calls are particularly interesting to chat with, Henderson said, such as a former film director and a woman from France who gave her French lessons on the phone. Whatever their circumstance, Henderson said she tries to be as upbeat as possible.

“I don’t tell them my problems or anything like that,” she said. “I try to keep it on the up side, because sometimes they need cheering up.”

But even though she enjoys her work, Henderson said she tries to wrap up her duties by 9 a.m. so she can spend time with her schnauzer, Maggy, and attend to other matters.

“I have errands to do and a dog to take care of and a little social life,” she said.