Suzy’s Story – Bringing joy to the later years of life

Suzy Dack talks of the inevitable loss of very elderly clients

Suzy and her dog MOLLY

I’ve been a volunteer with OSF since around Christmas 2022, after learning of the charity from Facebook. Since then, I’ve been taking my mature Cocker Spaniel, Molly, to visit four clients. Molly loves these outings, she gets very excited on arrival but soon calms down and likes the attention, offering her belly for a rub and relishing the sausages she is given by one of the ladies.

This is my first volunteering role and I find it very rewarding. But many of OSF’s clients are quite elderly, several in their 80s and 90s, so volunteers have to be prepared for sad partings. This can be because a client dies or goes into a care home where we cannot visit. I was initially visiting three clients, a couple and a lady who lives alone but had a day time carer.

She now needs 24 hour nursing care so went into a home. The husband of the couple was admitted to hospital recently and later moved to a nursing home for end of life care, when it was not appropriate to visit. He has since passed away. I had known the couple for nearly 18 months. It can be upsetting when a client passes away but it’s good knowing that Molly and I brightened his last months. I resumed my visits to his widow, who finds our presence so comforting. The joy OSF visits bring to people by providing animal companionship is very rewarding. Volunteers are matched with clients who have had their own dogs in the past.

People relax with Molly, while I provide a listening ear. And if a client dies, the charity promptly offers support to the volunteer if needed. My fourth client is in her 90s, and I visit her on some Saturday mornings. Unlike many clients, she has a good social life and family support so I don’t need to visit her every week. We converse by phone and she lets me know if a visit is needed in the coming week.

I have first-hand experience of the elderly as my own grandfather is 101. He lives a few miles away in an annexe on the side of my parents’ house , and my mother looks after him with no additional help. I visit him on Friday mornings to do his housework and help him to have a shave. In the afternoon I visit OSF clients, so my day off from my paid employment is quite full. Volunteers can do as much or as little as they want for the charity, and in my case I need to fit visits in with running a busy household, which includes my husband, daughter of 19 and son of 14.

From Mondays to Thursdays I work for Stephen Walters & Sons (Sudbury Silk Mill), where I interpret the designs of world-class fashion houses, including Polo Ralph Lauren, to provide patterns for the weaving looms. I have been with the firm for 23 years and am one of a team so I am working with people all week, but talking with OSF clients gives me another unique and rewarding purpose.

I also take the opportunity to meet other OSF volunteers from the Sudbury area at the monthly meetings organised for us, as we are rather far from the charity’s Newmarket base. We meet for coffee in a nice venue where our dogs are welcomed, so they also enjoy the get-togethers while we exchange news of clients and try to address new client needs. In addition, OSF provides training opportunities for us.

In all, this makes for a very full, varied and balanced life. And even though OSF volunteering can bring sad partings, the many memories of how clients’ faces light up when we arrive, and their happy smiles, makes it so worthwhile.