Senior News June, 2004 Vol. 25. No. 6

 

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

Sixteen years of community service helps seniors stay healthy

What caused the biggest flu epidemic in history?

Prevent, assist with osteoporosis

Don't let a bone fracture surprise you

New federal grant to serve Del Norte County

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We're lucky that when Audrey Pacheco chose to retire in 1988, she got in her car and headed north from Sausalito. She was looking for a town that was not too small and not too hot. When she got to Eureka, she felt at home. "I stayed at the Eureka Inn and discovered the zoo, the library and the coastal birds. I love birding," she said. The climate here reminded her of the place in England where she was born - Ipswich, in Surrey. "Even the marshes are the same."

We are lucky, too, that a new Eureka neighbor recommended the Humboldt Senior Resource Center as a place for Audrey to try. And shortly afterward she raised her hand when someone asked for a volunteer to take blood pressures.

Since then, she's been a regular. Every Tuesday for 16 years she has taken blood pressures for some 20 to 30 people. Rarely has she missed a Tuesday. "I did fall and break my hip," Audrey confessed. "I was out of action for a month. It was sort of a forced vacation. But," she added, "they have a hard time keeping me down."

What moves Audrey to be so loyal to her calling, someone we can count on week after week and year after year? Her answer is simple. "I like to be busy," she said. She also works at the Victim/Witness division of the District Attorney's office where she types, files, handles the mail and takes care of bills.

"After World War II I wanted to come to America. I had to work for six months to get a visa and sponsors as were required then. Then I had to work another six months just to get a plane ticket." She added, "My father encouraged me. He thought it was good to be ambitious."

Audrey set off for the United States after graduating from secretarial college. She came to California and found work - first at a cannery, cutting apricots, and later in a secretarial position at a refinery. Through friends, she met the man who was to become her husband. After he died at age 58, she ran a flower shop for ten years. When she was ready to retire, she came to the decision that Marin County was too expensive a place for a retiree. That's when she got in her car and headed north.

Audrey loves being useful to others: "If the blood pressure is too high, or even too low, I recommend they call their doctor. One person went right away." The blood pressure was so out of whack that it required immediate stabilization. When doctors prescribe a new medication, they may also say to check blood pressure for a few weeks to be sure the medication has no harmful effects.

We keep records of every reading," Audrey said. It's helpful to have the same person using the same equipment to do readings at the same time on the same day. It eliminates some of the variables that might confuse the pattern in the readings. "And we give the person a card of their readings they can take to the doctor." Doctors have come to depend on it.

We have come to depend on Audrey Pacheco. At age 80, there's no sign that she is slowing down. Thank you, Audrey, for keeping busy helping us.

Gayle Blomme of Eureka is a freelance writer, a member of the Senior News Editorial Advisory Board and one of our volunteer proofreaders. Her e-mail is gayleblomme@earthlink.net.