By Vicki Scott
We are at George Wallace Senior Center in Glencoe on a Wednesday Bingo Day. Excitement is in the air.
The phone rings and Pat answers it. The caller on the other end wants to speak to her husband. Pat does not see him from where she is, so she puts the caller on hold and looks for the caller’s husband.
One of our seniors stops Pat’s pursuit and asks who is calling the bingo game. It is Paulette’s turn but she has a family emergency. As Pat is explaining the bingo situation, Paulette arrives and brings in bingo prizes before she leaves for the hospital. Pat immediately goes to help her. They said their goodbyes while Paulette made her apologies.
Meanwhile, I am preparing to do announcements in the room in front of Pat’s office while our seniors return from exercise class. There are sounds of fun and fellowship as each senior finds a seat in the dining area for lunch. Pat moves the bingo prizes to where I am at and volunteers me to call the bingo game. Deidre puts my microphone in place, and as I step up to the mic, Pat spots the phone caller’s husband, who is sitting at the table waiting patiently for announcements.
Pat jumped as if she had a flashback of her mom yelling out her full name. She definitely looked as if she was in trouble and bracing for a reprimand.
Pat quickly pushed me aside to get to the caller’s husband and send him to the phone. She wasn’t sure if the caller was still on the phone and apologized wholeheartedly.
The caller’s husband hurried to the phone, and luckily, his wife was still waiting. He explained to her what happened, and we moved on to the announcements.
The situation was not as funny at the time as it was at the end of the day. We get so busy and sidetracked sometimes that we forget the tasks at hand.
I guess the moral of the story is, when calling the center on Bingo Day, it might take a while for us to remember to get a person to the phone. I praise God that neither the caller nor her husband was upset about the sidetracking fiasco.
When trying to call us at George Wallace Senior Center, please be patient. We strive to make every effort to keeping our seniors active. In the process, we are active with them, making it difficult to get to the phone. We are there and we are not dodging your call. Please leave us a message or come see us. We would love to see you!