My love for working with Seniors started when I was in 6th grade. We were required to complete volunteer hours and to the Grande Prairie Care Centre I went every Thursday night to help the residents with satellite Bingo. I was assigned to a table of 4 lovely ladies who really kept me on my toes. Most were wheelchair bound, all had a long time love of bingo but only one still understood how to play it independently. Two needed me to point out which numbers to dab and one, much to my stress, was just dabbing freely, not a care in the world which number they had called. I wondered multiple times why they would have these ladies come down and pay for bingo cards when they can't really even play? All insisted on playing multiple cards which kept me busy busy for an hour a week as I frantically bounced between my new friends. They laughed and asked me questions, reached for my hand and smiled and smiled as I told them about school and my family.
Before I knew it, the mandatory hours had been completed. But my ladies still lit up when they saw me and they still needed help on Thursday nights. No one was stepping in to fill my place, they were just going to be on their own. So I stayed. Slowly their health deteriorated and one by one they were no longer able to come down for bingo. I stayed until my last friend was no longer able to come down for bingo anymore and was sad to see them all go. Only as I became a nurse later in life did I realize that bringing the ladies down to bingo when 3/4 no longer understood the rules of bingo had everything to do with the importance of social connections and really nothing to do with Bingo.
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