Health

Volunteering in Memory of His Daughter

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He plays music for them. He organizes a car show. He chats with them. He listens.

 

These are just a few of the things Richard Brown does for Edgemoor patients and that helped earn him the Volunteer of the Year award from California Association of Health Facilities, which represents more than 1,200 facilities. 

“It is overwhelming,” said Brown, 75, who has been volunteering at Edgemoor, the County’s skilled nursing facility, for more than two years. 

The new award was a surprise to the Santee resident even though it is just one of many he has received since his volunteer work began—he was honored with the County’s Volunteer of the Year Award in 2011 and has also been recognized by the State Senate and Assembly.

Brown says he is not the one who deserves the recognition.

“It’s God working through me. He gets the credit, I don’t. I am just there to be with the patients,” said Brown, who volunteers eight hours per week on Tuesdays and Fridays.

After retiring from his appliance mechanic job at SDG&E, Brown decided to volunteer his time, not for himself, but to honor the memory of his only daughter, Cheryl. She died in of a brain hemorrhage after a car crash in 1986 when she was just 17.

“If she had lived, she would have been in a hospital like Edgemoor,” said Brown, adding that his daughter’s other injuries were so severe, if she had survived the incident, she wouldn’t have been able to come home.

He later adopted a daughter, and she and his wife of 54 years, Josephine, join him the first and third Tuesdays of the month when they play music and show tunes in a portable keyboard he bought and donated to Edgemoor. The Browns also donate ceramics so that the patients can paint them. He also secured different items to make sure the patients’ religious and spiritual needs were being met.

“Where there’s a need, you find Mr. Brown,” said Francis Schaad, volunteer coordinator at Edgemoor. “He is a very generous individual.”

The biggest event Brown plans for the patients is Edgemoor’s car show which takes place twice each year.

The idea for the car show came to him two years ago when he and his friend Jim Craig—also an Edgemoor volunteer—were having lunch on a Saturday morning and saw several classic cars outside the restaurant. Craig is also being honored for his commitment to Edgemoor at the Board of Supervisors meeting tomorrow as the County’s “Volunteer of the Month.” Brown pitched the idea to Edgemoor administrators and they agreed. The first car show featured 38 vintage cars and it went so well, they decided to do it twice per year. The next car show is scheduled for Friday, October 19 and Brown hopes to have more than 50 classic cars.

He also found that Edgemoor patients have a love of cars. Brown has purchased four remote control cars for them.

“We go outside and we play with remote cars. Not only the guys, the girls love them too,” said Brown, who today accompanied his friend Jim when he received the Volunteer of the Month award for August from the County.

Brown is especially proud of a young female patient who wanted to play with the remote control cars but thought she could not because she has no mobility in her right hand.

When she wants to play, Brown serves as her right hand and helps her turn the car right or left.

“We work as a team,” said Brown. “When we got it to work the first time, she was so thrilled. The look on her face was amazing.”

Brown said he’ll continue to donate his time to help Edgemoor patients have an easier life at the facility.

“I listen to their needs. You do whatever you can to help them,” said Brown. “These are my kids. That is basically why I do this, in remembrance of our daughter.”

José A. Álvarez is a communications specialist with the County of San Diego Communications Office. Contact