By Rob Neff
This morning over coffee I gained two new heroes. One is Maurice Rowland. He’s a cook. The other is Miguel Alvarez. He’s a janitor.
Both men worked for Valley Springs Manor, an assisted living facility in California. When the owner hit hard times and the paychecks stopped coming, the caregivers stopped coming to work, except for Mr. Rowland and Mr. Alvarez, who weren’t really caregivers, but they were.
Instead of leaving, Mr. Rowland and Mr. Alvarez attended to the needs of the sixteen residents, all of whom needed round the clock care and some of whom suffered from dementia. They cooked, they fed and bathed the residents, they dispensed medication, taking only hour long breaks to go home and bathe and change clothes themselves.
They did all this for several days until the fire department and sheriff took over. They did it because they were needed, at the most basic human level. And they did it in part because of Mr. Alvarez’s memory of being abandoned by his parents as a child and his desire to spare the residents the agony he experienced.
I’m reminded of something my son said once, “When I die, I just want to know that at least once in my life I did something for the greater good.” Mr. Rowland and Mr. Alvarez, you can check that off your lists. I hope I meet the likes of you in my hour of greatest need.
You can hear their story here: http://www.npr.org/2014/11/21/365433685/if-we-left-they-wouldnt-have-nobody.