Lessons Over Lunch

Ninety-year-old volunteer Hugh showed me how the winter years can be full of purpose

- PEYTON H. ROBERTS

I DON'T RECALL THE FIRST TIME I heard the phrase, “Once an adult, twice a child,” but I remember when it began to sink in.

I was in my early 20s working at a nonprofit in San Diego when our 90-year-old volunteer, Hugh, announced he would be adding a few more hours to his weekly regimen. Instead of coming in for two hours every Friday, Hugh would be joining us full time—five days a week.

After working with Hugh for a few years and enduring our share of his frustrations, the busy young professionals in our overcommitted development and communications department were as thrown as I was by the news.

We didn’t have enough hours in the fiscal year to meet our multimillion-dollar fundraising goals, and catering to a volunteer’s demands didn’t sit high on the priority list.

Nevertheless, we felt pulled to be compassionate and, seeing the difficult transition he was going through admitting his wife into an Alzheimer’s facility, we decided to give full-time Hugh a chance.

As it turns out, we didn’t have a choice. He came to the office no matter what.

Identifying worthwhile projects for Hugh was a constant struggle. A retired lawyer, Hugh was a welcomed asset using his legal background to help manage trusts and legacy bequests.

But that was a small fraction of our workload, which left our small, overcommitted team scrambling to fill the other 38 hours of his workweek.

His computer skills were impressive for someone born during World War I, but still wildly limited in tackling our task lists. Mail merge never quite caught on.