Day 4: you are my Sunshine too

Ok, I'm a little late on Day 4.  Training for a marathon has all but crippled my legs the past few days...and last night was the worst of all.  I was relatively immobile...and stuck in bed.  Day 4 just had to wait.

But here it is...and this post has to (again) do with volunteering.

On Mondays, I spend two hours at St. Mary's...and on Tuesday I volunteer with PossAbilities of Southern Minnesota, a group that gives job opportunities to the disabled.

There's been a big switch up in my building.  Essentially, they bought out the building next door, and divided the program in half.  Work on one side. Play on the other.  I'm now on the play side (are ou surprised? haha) and I'm meeting new people every day. Under the old way, I was in a classroom with ten or so consumers (the same ones every day, so it was easy to develop relationships with those people).  Now, consumers aren't assigned to rooms, and are free to kind of roam around the building...so there's a lot of new people, and a lot of people for me to meet.

Ok - down to business.

Everyone's still getting used to their new roles, including me.  I'm not sure how or where I'm most helpful yet.  Yesterday, I was placed in the media room to help one of the consumers put together puzzles (until he got bored and walked out on me for the wii...haha).  While I was doing this, one of the other consumers kept shouting something at me, but I couldn't make out exactly what he was saying.  There were a lot of "S" sounds in there, but other than that, I just looked at him helpless...even having him repeat it multiple times wasn't doing a thing for me.  I hate when that happens, because I just feel stupid and I see the frustration building in their eyes.

And then a lightbulb went off.

SUNSHINE!  He was saying sunshine.  He said it twice in a row, with just the right pitch and the right pause between them...and I was able to place it.  He wasn't just saying sunshine...he was singing it.  As in, "You are my sunshine."

This particular consumer isn't exactly very verbal.  He has a tendency to act out and be stubborn...but for one brief moment I broke that shell.

"You are my..."
"SUNSHINE!"
"My only..."
"SUNSHINE!"

We sang that song together for the rest of the afternoon...him filling in the blanks that I left for him. It melted my heart.  He was giggling....he reached out and grabbed my hand...and his whole face lit up with a smile that could have lit up the night sky.

I swear to you, volunteers get so much more than they give.

Because sweetheart? You were my sunshine too.

:)