I want to do good…

I became a Social Worker when I qualified in 2004. Various things that had happened to me, including a second abusive marriage led me to choosing this career. I have always loathed situations where people were unjust and unkind not just to me, but to others I cared about. I decided to study Social Work so that I could use my negative life experiences to do some positive good.

I don’t know whether it is the fact that I am getting older, my diagnosis or my Social Work training, but I feel more and more that I look for positive ways to leave my mark on the world and to do good for others. I started this Blog to find a way to deal with my feelings, but also with the hope that I can reach out to others through my words and help them too! I am also trying to find a publisher who is interested in turning the first two years worth of Blog posts into a book. I want to do this because I know that not everyone with Parkinson’s would be able to access what I have written if only in Blog form. I’m currently waiting to hear from publishers to see what if anything comes of my submission of my work.

I am off work at the moment and waiting for knee replacement surgery next week on 29/11. Thinking about how I spend my time when I am laid up in recovery, I have decided to do some crocheting. Last big operation I had, I crocheted three rugs, one for each of my grandsons, that are just big enough to cover their little legs on a cold morning, but not too big for them to carry for themselves.

So, I decided to do some more rugs while I recover from this operation. I put a request on our local community Facebook page asking if anyone had any double knitting wool they didn’t want. I quickly got a message from someone local saying they had quite a lot of wool and I was welcome to come and grab some for free. I went round and there was a lovely variety of wool and the lovely kind lady let me have them all for nothing. While I was talking to her as she sorted the wool out, I said to her that as I was getting the wool free, I would look at donating the rugs to the SPCA Opp Shop. In this way, I would be paying the kindness forward.

Then, my Aunt and Uncle came round for a cuppa and I told them what I was doing. My 85 year old Aunt said, ‘Older people like a rug for their knees when they are sitting’. So that got me thinking about making rugs for people at the local resthomes. So, that’s what my project is. To make some knee rugs up for the rest homes and help keep some of our older residents warm. It’s a win, win situation. I get to occupy my time usefully and when finished the rugs will help keep an older person warm. It’s nice to think that I am able to do something nice for the older more fragile residents of our community.

Myself and an illustrator have taken steps to talk to an organisation about a book we are making for children whose parents have had a major health event. We have a few things to work out yet, but it looks like the interest might be there, if they can get funding to produce a children’s book to help them to understand what is happening to their parent. It is something that as Social Workers on my ward, we have known that it has been needed for some time. The illustrator I have found is amazing, so I have high hopes of producing a beautiful book.

If the children’s book comes about neither I, nor the illustrator, will be getting any money for what we are producing. That was never the point. The reason for doing this – if it all comes together – is that we both see an unmet need for the children whose parent or parents have been affected and we want to produce a resource to help them. We are both passionate about the project and hope that soon we will be able to have something produced.

It seems that the older I get the more I feel the need to do good in my community. I never really thought about all the people you see volunteering in opportunity shops and other community things before. I hadn’t really thought that it was something that I would do, but now I very much see myself doing something like working in a charity shop when I retire.

Hopefully, once I am no longer a Social Worker I will be able to continue to do good for others and help those in need in the community in many different ways.

I think it will do me good, to do good and hopefully I will continue to find ways to make a difference in people’s lives long after I hang up my Social Work hat!