A Letter to Louise

As the world recovered from the Covid pandemic, the West Haven Veterans Hospital allowed 25 youth volunteers back into the building in the summer of 2022. I was one of them, three years ago.

All masked up at the tail end of the pandemic, I initially got the gig to get community service hours for my high school. I eventually racked up about 130 hours that summer. Most of the patient escort job involved waiting for elevators, sitting at the front desk and taking phone calls, pushing around veterans to their appointments and solving problems that you encountered along the way. Most of the other kids were there because they were going into the medical field. I was just there because I had nothing else to do, I suppose. It was fun working at the front information desk, where I quickly learned the ropes. The adult volunteers were all older people who, as such, became great sources of intergenerational contact for us high schoolers.

Although I recorded most of my volunteer hours that summer of 2022, over the next three years I would return to the hospital whenever I had time, and I eventually amassed more than 300 hours. Sure, I no longer needed hours to graduate high school with distinction but it kept me busy on days where I didn’t feel so great and was also unemployed. It distracted me as I was always on my feet and with something to do. It also made me feel better as I helped veterans who served our country. 

In those three years, I have seen a lot of people come and go at the hospital. Adult volunteers, youth volunteers, the veterans themselves, familiar faces that went to and fro. 

Yet a lady named Louise at the front desk remained a constant.

Once college started, I found it difficult to find time to volunteer as even though the hospital is near my school, I was busy with other things. In the summers of 2023 and 2024 when I was more available, the youth program took more than 50 kids instead of the Covid-19-reduced 25 which was more manageable. Some of these kids were distributed across the hospital in various clinics, but during these summers there were at least 15 kids at the front desk. 

Most of them were high schoolers who couldn’t remember where easy places like the pharmacy was after the third time of going there. They would just sit on their phone or goof off. Louise was never upset with them and was always more patient than even I was at times.

I began volunteering at age 16 and I’m about to turn 20. In the turbulent world of adolescence and chaotic issues of growing up in these peak years, I sometimes could never make time to volunteer. But whenever I did, Louise and the other adult volunteers would be there, almost remaining static in an ever-changing world. I could rely on the hospital to be the same every time I returned. 

Maybe they had redecorated, there was a wheelchair shortage again, the lineup of volunteers would be different, a specialty clinic would be shifted in location and confuse us, there were new rules, or even a new president in office which shifted the federal building regulations. Yet it sort of felt like an oasis where I could rely on some constant variables to be stable in my entire adolescence of turbulent times. Louise was probably the one person who embodied this constant more than anything as essentially the boss of the front desk. 

I’m not going to pretend as if Louise was only kind to me. Sure, we talked a lot about life in those years, but her main mission seemed to always be serving the veterans. She wasn’t just a constant for me, but for everyone who entered the hospital as a friendly familiar face that was there everyday. Despite being at the VA for a couple years, the amount of faces that come and go everyday make it difficult to pin down the same veterans unless they were frequent visitors. 

Sometimes I’d be pushing a veteran to an appointment and they’d remember me as someone who’d helped them in the past. I’d feel guilty as I could not remember everyone I encountered in my time there. That would be simply impossible. Yet Louise probably knew almost everyone that went there and was deeply ingrained in the community and loved by all.

The hospital was always shifting and had something changed every time I returned. Since Louise was there all the time, she knew pretty much everything. In other words I’d be confused about how to punch in a clinic extension on the new front desk phones and she’d have the answer. If someone appeared asking for an office I’d never heard of, Louise would know exactly where it was. She was extremely competent, which I feel is a hard quality to replace.

I have never met anyone who was so positive, joyous and hard-working. If she had troubles she certainly didn’t show them. In order to do such a job as she did, you have to really care about what you’re doing and she for sure did. The amount of people she helped with her friendly presence, calm directions and easygoing demeanor is countless. 

We have had so many laughs over the years, seen so many people come and go and seen the hospital go through so many changes. A lot of the time my incentive for going to the VA to continue volunteering and helping the veterans was simply because she was there and I wanted to catch up and hang out. 

A lot of the veterans have health issues or other issues going on so I think one of the main things the VA taught me was being patient and accommodating. Speak up if they can’t hear you. Talk to them if they’re lonely. Make conversation and tell them what university you go to. Go shopping with them in the Patriot Store even if it takes awhile. In a world with so much cruelty and pain, the least you can do is extend a hand to those in need. Louise really embodied this and honestly I can’t think of anyone more inspiring because of that.

Her final day at the VA a couple weeks ago on Halloween was bittersweet. Retirement was deeply deserved for all the hard work and love she poured out. Yet as selfish as it sounds, I was a little upset that this constant variable in the last three years was about to disappear. Then again I realized, I am not the same person I was when I was 16. Who really is? It almost signaled the end of an era of life for me, and the start of a new chapter. The VA is not going to be the same without Louise. There’s no doubt about it. Yet it’ll continue operating, because despite all its problems, it needs to. People need people like Louise. That’s why I am going to continue volunteering when I can, because it’s all about kindness.

So thank you Louise for all the years of laughter, tears, growing up, stories and hanging out at the front desk. I wish you well in retirement, and even though we’ll all surely miss you, it is no doubt apparent what an enormous impact you made and continue to make on the lives of countless people.