Homebound visit

Today I visited a woman that is homebound and lives alone. It was a joy talking to her and learning about her life growing up in Dubuque. She is around 80 years old, when she was growing up in Dubuque, she talked about how there was no julien dubuque bridge. The only way to get across to the other side was a wooden bridge by eagle point park. It the top deck was for cars and the bottom trains went underneath. I thought that would have be cool to see.
She also talked about how when she was young and married to her childhood sweet heart that she followed out to California. He was in the service and they were married on treasure Island. After world war two they came back to Dubuque and started a family. For a getaway on the weekend, her parents would watch the kids and they would ride the trains from Dubuque all the way to chicago. I also asked her how Dubuque has changed from when she was a kid. She responded by telling me that Dodge street, highway 20... used to be all houses along the road. As a kid she lived along that road. So that area has completely changed. She also told me when the Mississippi river flooded the down town area was all under water because there was no dike or flood walls.
She told me about her family. She thinks about her husband and daugther everyday. Some days are better than others when it comes to being able to talk about it. Her daughter used to live with her and her husband, and one morning her husband told her to come into the kitchen. They found her daugther dead on the kitchen floor. She had suffered a massive heartache at the age of 51. A year later her husband did the same thing. Her son lives in a near by town but she lives alone which she is ok with she gives alot of visitor from St. Joepsh the worker parisher, where I am volenteering. As we were sitting there she had two people stop by. One was a person from the parish bringing her supper. and the other was the neighbor across the street that mows her lawn and takes out the garbage for her every week.
Comparing this experience to the other visits with elderly of the parish. It was probably one of the more sad ones that affected me. She is such a sweet lady, living alone with her dog. all the other places I have visited had other people like themselves living all around them in nursing homes and apartment buildings. I think the fact that the parish cares enough to come visit and caught up with the person for a few hours is great.