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MEALS: Volunteers eager to offer help
Journal Photos by Walt Unks
Senior Services workers (from left) Peggy Davis, Angie Wall, Karin Luff and Katherine Hodges in prayer.
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Published: April 26, 2008
It never crossed Jack Welborn's mind that maybe this morning he shouldn't go in to deliver meals to shut-ins.
It's what he does.
Welborn and other volunteers for Meals on Wheels came to the Senior Services offices the same as always and got to work. They picked up thermal containers filled with hot meals and put them in vans or the trunks of their cars. They picked up their delivery sheets and planned their routes from the parking lot. They made their deliveries.
"This is something that could have happened to anybody, any place, any time," Welborn said of the fatal shooting Thursday of Meals on Wheels volunteer Anne Magness. Her husband, Bill, was shot and wounded. Their Meals on Wheels client, Bob Denning, was beaten to death.
In the next breath, though, Welborn said that the shooting will probably make him more cautious in checking out his surroundings.
The staff of Senior Services, which operates Meals on Wheels, and some of the early-arriving volunteers gathered yesterday in the lobby of the agency's office on Shorefair Drive, where some fought back tears. They prayed and heard words of assurance from Richard Gottlieb, the agency's president.
"It is a terrible, terrible senseless tragedy," Gottlieb told a group of about 25 people. "Nothing like this has ever happened before."
Linda Kearsley, the director of nutrition services, was a little concerned whether all the volunteers would show up.
She needn't have worried. Not only did every volunteer show up, but people who weren't even scheduled to work called in to see if they could help.
Other agencies called to offer help. One client's son called and said he would take care of his mother's meal, in case the agency was short-handed and needed to help others.
Volunteer Carol Allen said she thought "for a half-minute" this morning about canceling. Then she came on in, wearing a gaudy pair of oversize sunglasses to bring a smile to people out on the route.
"I want to make people laugh and give them some cheer," Allen said. "A little laughter is a good thing."
She added that she wasn't worried about her safety because "God is in control."
Welborn's 16-stop delivery route took him to the Washington Park neighborhood. About half of the people who got meals from Welborn had heard about the shooting.
"The world is going crazy," client Nellie Pruitt told Welborn. She added that "I worry about y'all," and had a good word for the Meals on Wheels delivery drivers.
"Not only do I get a delicious meal, I get to meet nice people," she said.
Volunteers typically knock on the front door when making their rounds, sometimes having to knock more than once when the person inside is hard of hearing.
Staffers at the senior center decided to take the Magnesses' route themselves this morning, rather than leave it to a volunteer.
"We were not making the connection for people that didn't make the connection," said Susan Lounsbury, the client coordinator at Senior Services.
But some clients already knew about the shooting and were saddened. "We had a client approach who said that he (Magness) would bring her a dog biscuit every time he came out," Lounsbury said.
Another client told Lounsbury that Anne Magness gave her a hug before leaving to go to the next stop -- the stop where Magness was killed.
"She said … if only I had talked to her longer," Lounsbury said.
■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.
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