Extra Credit

Contact: Lucille E. Bruto Tel: 212-875-8958 Coordinator of DOROT

I live in a building that is classified as a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community or a NORC by the New York City Department of Aging. This title allows the building to receive money from the city to finance programs and other events for the elderly. A NORC is a community or neighborhood where residents remain for years and age as neighbors. In my building they have banded together and developed services to aid those needing assistance; thereby, retaining the highest quality of life for all residents as they age. The community offers services and amenities to serve their residents such as social and recreational programs, continuing education programs, information and counseling, outside maintenance and referral services, emergency and preventive health care programs, meal programs, transportation on a schedule, and many more. These programs are run by an organization called DOROT. DOROT sends volunteers and social workers to work and plan events for the elderly. It was an outreach program in my building that contacted DOROT to help our building in 1996.

A wonderful woman named Florence, whom I have known for most of my life, is elderly and suffers from terrible hip problems and arthritis in multiple places. She can barely walk now and is bound to a wheel chair. I have been raised to always lend a helping hand and my family has reached out to Florence ever since I can remember. I have fixed her computer more times than I can count, gotten her groceries and talked to her often. Over the past six days, I visited Florence frequently to keep her company and help her in her home. I was able to assist her a great deal. My first task was to organize and clean her kitchen. Florence has always loved to cook so she has numerous pots, pans, bowls and every kitchen appliance you can imagine but over the past three years she has not been able to bend and reach or put back any of them neatly. I cleaned her entire kitchen out and organized he shelves so they look as beautiful as she remembered. I also helped her go grocery shopping and got her the newspaper every morning. I took walks with her in the snow to make sure she stayed safe and moved furniture around her house. Sometimes we just sat and talked. On very damp days her legs are always in extreme pain and it is difficult for her to move around much. The best medicine for her is laughter and that’s what I was able to provide.

The twelve hours of community service was nothing compared to seeing how happy it made her feel to have me regularly visit her. When I think of a dominant social practice that an old person faces, the first thought in my mind is someone locked in their house not talking to anyone. Florence defies that social practice; even in her pain she packs a lunch and brings it to the community room to eat with a group of her neighbors on days when the weather is better and she can manage they go outside. She does not want to live isolated in her apartment; she wants to be free like she was when she was younger. I see no social practices that would ever undermine her chance of living a well life.