Chapter 01: Resolving to Become a Volunteer

Chapter 01: Resolving to Become a Volunteer

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Description

Mrs. Harrison begins this segment by noting that she and her husband, Bedford Harrison, moved to Houston in 1947. She began as a floor hostess in about 1968, working with both adult and pediatric patients. When the new building was constructed, she chose to work with adults and explains that she eventually worked in the protective environment floor: she explains some of the requests that family members made, as she could interact with their loved ones in ways they could not.

Identifier

HarrisonK_01_20130528_C01

Publication Date

5-28-2012

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The Interview Subject's Story - Joining MD Anderson/Coming to Texas; Personal Background; Human Stories; Offering Care, Compassion, Help; Patients; Cancer and Disease; This is MD Anderson; Personal Reflections, Memories of MD Anderson; The Philanthropist/Volunteer; Volunteers and Volunteering

Transcript

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

All right. I am Tacey Ann Rosolowski interviewing Karen Harrison for the Making Cancer History Voices Oral History Project run by the Historical Resources Center at MD Anderson. Mrs. Harrison was Assistant Director of Volunteer Services at MD Anderson and also a manager of the Children’s Art Project that is run through the Department of Volunteer Services, though as I understand, you were a volunteer for a very, very long time. The interview is taking place at Mrs. Harrison’s home in Houston, Texas, and this is our first interview session. Today is May 28, 2013, and the time is about two minutes after 1:00. So thank you very much, Mrs. Harrison, for allowing me to come and interview you.

Karen Harrison:

My pleasure.  

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Just for the record, I wanted to start with just a bit of personal background, and if you could tell me where you were born and when.

Karen Harrison:

I was born in Shamrock, Texas. That’s in the panhandle, east of Amarillo, and it was a town of about 2500 people. I was born in June of 1929, brought on the Depression, and they’ve never forgiven me.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

What is your birth date? You’re going to be celebrating your birthday pretty soon.

Karen Harrison:

Yes. The twenty-seventh of June.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

The twenty-seventh of June. Almost one month from today.

Karen Harrison:

Yes.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And when did you move to Houston, actually?

Karen Harrison:

I came to Houston when I married in 1947.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And what did your husband do?

Karen Harrison:

My husband was a graduate of Texas A&M, and he was a chemical engineer and did the thermal and hydraulic design in the manufacturing of heat exchangers.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Tell me how you started to be connected with MD Anderson and became a volunteer. [redacted]

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And what year was that?

Karen Harrison:

I’m not sure. It was in ’68 or ’69 or something like that.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And what was your role when you first started? What did they put you to doing?

Karen Harrison:

I was a floor hostess.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And what did that involve? I don’t even know what that means.

Karen Harrison:

I took them newspapers. I changed the water in their room. I visited with them. Personally, I always tried to put my hand on their shoulder or on their hand because I think physical contact is helpful to people who are in hard situations. I did that for several years—a couple of years. I can’t tell you exactly how long, but they built a new building. When they built a new building, I had to choose whether I would go with the children or with the adult patients. And I chose to go with the adults because everybody was clamoring to help the children, which of course I would have been too, but I also was aware of the young men that were victims of cancer of the testes, and either their mother or their wife or their girlfriend or whatever were busy all day and they were there pretty well on their own. So I thought that my volunteering would be more valuable there.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

So how long did you do that before you shifted over to work with kids?

Karen Harrison:

At first it was between the two things. I worked both places before they built the new building. One end of the hall was children, and the other end was the young men.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And tell me how it worked. Did you go in one day a week, or how did that work?

Karen Harrison:

I at first went in one day a week, but very soon I started going two. My husband had retired, and the child that had gone to high school had gone to college, and I could have more time to be there. I eventually volunteered on, I think it was, the tenth floor at that time, but it was the protected environment where I had the gown and mask and everything to go in. And the families were on the outside of glass enclosures to be able to talk to their patients and all. I’d get off the elevator, and they would come running to me and say, “Will you do this or that with my husband or my son or my mother,” or whatever. It was very gratifying.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Did you get special training to be a volunteer?

Karen Harrison:

Not particularly. I’m sure I did.

Conditions Governing Access

Redacted

Chapter 01: Resolving to Become a Volunteer

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