By Michelle Fucci
It was supposed to be just one hour a week. I had decided to volunteer as a “friendly visitor” for one hour a week—leaving the office on my lunch break to sit with legally-blind Margaret and keep her company in her too-small apartment. Besides the occasional afternoon playing billiards at my grandmother’s housing complex, I had not spent any extensive time with older adults. On a whim, I decided to give friendly visiting a chance.
Before I knew it, one hour each Thursday had turned into one and a half hours, which soon became two hours. Sneaking away from my cubicle each week felt like I was cheating on my day job as an administrative assistant in a collegiate fundraising office—I was having an illicit fling with geriatric social work.
My lunches with Margaret were invigorating, but that alone is not the reason I decided to work with older adults. Yes, Margaret would give me advice on how to cook authentic Italian food or regale me with stories about working in New York City as a telegraph operator. But she also made me think, for the first time really, about some of the painful issues that can face older adults: social isolation, financial insecurity, and what can happen when an older adult just wants to give up.
Over the course of the year and a half that I got to know Margaret, I also met Andrea, the social worker in Margaret’s senior apartment building. As Andrea described how she saw her role—simply as a helper—I realized social work with older adults was the field in which I wanted to work.
It did take me a while to break it off with my day job, but eventually I was accepted to the University of Michigan School of Social Work. There I met an exceptional group of like-minded students all with a passion for working with older adults. Instructors like Karen Staller and Janet Ray encouraged and engaged me to see the connections between the classroom and the community. Each learning experience brings with it both challenge and opportunity.
Looking back, I wish that I had had more knowledge, more information, and more fully-developed skills to talk Margaret through what was troubling her. Now, with the education that I am receiving from the University of Michigan, I know that soon I will possess those skills. What started as just one hour a week has turned into a lifetime, and that is just fine with me.
Michelle Fucci is an MSW student and geriatric scholar at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. She holds a B.A. from Hamilton College in English Literature and an MS from Boston College in Administrative Studies. Michelle is currently completing her field placement at the Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation in Detroit, MI.