Chapter 07: Memorable Volunteers and Caring for Patients
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Mrs. Harrison explains that when she began to volunteer at MD Anderson, she worked with young men with testicular cancer. She describes them as very determined to fight their disease and believes that she was able to give them confidence. Next Mrs. Harrison talks about working with patients on the protected environment floor. She describes the physical setting, in which patients were separated from their families by a glass window. Mrs. Harrison entered the protected environment (she put on scrubs), and she explains her role with patients. Often patients asked her to take personal items, such as a bible, to be sterilized so they might have it in the room with them. She tells a story of one woman who asked her to massage her daughter’s shoulder. Mrs. Harrison also explains that she served as an informal recruiter of other volunteers: she brought in her husband and a former classmate of her husband, Rock Rabinowitz, who worked volunteered many, many hours. Mrs. Harrison notes that people would often react very negatively to the idea of working in a cancer center, and explains how she countered their qualms. She explains that she established strong connections with patients and their families. She invited many of them for the holidays.
In this touching story, Mrs. Harrison describes how she cared for a little girl who came from Hawaii with her family for treatment. After the child’s death, her mother asked Mrs. Harrison to help her choose the dress her daughter would be buried in.
Mrs. Harrison says that she believes that her ability to connect with people is “God given.” She describes her relationship with a patient who now has an externship with MD Anderson. She then recalls Sister Alice, an energetic volunteer who was a “cheerleader” at one of the Children’s Art Project kick off parades. Finally she talks about Tom Jean Moore, the volunteer who took care of the rose garden and brought roses to be delivered to any patient who did not have flowers that day.
Identifier
HarrisonK_02_20130607_C07
Publication Date
6-7-2013
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - The Volunteer; The Philanthropist/Volunteer; Professional Practice; The Professional at Work; Offering Care, Compassion, Help; This is MD Anderson; MD Anderson History; Character, Values, Beliefs, Talents; Faith, Values, Beliefs; Portraits; Patients
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Karen Harrison:
It was just about the protected environment, the bond hearing. That was not where I began, but I began in the old building, and one half of it was children, one half adults—male—with cancer of the testes.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, okay.
Karen Harrison:
And so when they built the new building, they were separating them, and I got to choose which group I wanted to go with. I chose to go with the young men because everybody wants to work with the children and the children get a great deal of attention. In the case of the young men, their mother or their girlfriend or their wife was out working and were not there to pat them all the time.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now what did you see? I mean, when you would go to the floor and see these young men, did they—? Was there something that happened to them by getting a cancer diagnosis like this, especially cancer of the testes?
Karen Harrison:
They were very determined. Often they would take their poles and walk to Hermann Park and back, pushing their poles—their medications. They were connected to a pole, their medications, and they were very determined and very—being a part of helping themselves to get well.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now, what did you feel you could do for these young men as a volunteer?
Karen Harrison:
Just encourage them. I never entered any patient’s room without hoping to put my hand on their shoulder, give them a pat. I think that’s just one more way that you could comfort them.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Human contact is just so important—it’s so important—and I guess in the hospital you’d almost be starved. When people touch you in the hospital, it’s usually to do something that’s painful or uncomfortable. How long did you work on that floor with the young men?
Karen Harrison:
I’m not sure the amount of time. I don’t—you know—probably looking at when we first occupied the new building would give you a date. I know when I started, but I’m not sure how long I worked.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What was the next job that you had when you were volunteering?
Karen Harrison:
Well, I did work with the protected environment.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, and tell me—remind me where that was again. It said it was on the—
Karen Harrison:
It was on the tenth floor. I don’t even know where I could locate it at this point, because the building isn’t the same.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, we can—
Karen Harrison:
It was on the tenth floor. The patients were in a room that no one entered except the cleaning people. One side of the room was glass, and their families could look into them and visit with them. A curtain could be drawn if they wanted to draw it to rest or not have people with them right then. To have people with them there, there would be glass between them.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now, why were these patients in the protected environment?
Karen Harrison:
Well, because they—I think they killed all of their natural immunities and were working from that. Medically, I could not really give you—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
But obviously they’d be really susceptible to anything.
Karen Harrison:
Yes, they were very susceptible.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Right. Okay.
Karen Harrison:
And to work with them, I went into the—I wore scrubs and covered my hair. I went into the nursing unit that they surrounded, and I did things like, say they wanted their bible to be sterilized and come into their room. I took things to be sterilized. The parents or loved ones of the patients would meet me on the stairs saying, “Oh, could you massage my daughter’s shoulder today? It’s so bothering her.” And I’m a natural-born masseuse, so I put my hands into the gloves and did the work from the other side.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, I see.
Karen Harrison:
And that was a popular thing.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So why do you say you’re a natural-born masseuse?
Karen Harrison:
I know what feels good, and I have strong hands, and so I try to bring what—the good feeling to them.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Well, that’s a wonderful thing to be able to give to a patient. So how long were some of these patients in the protected environment and separated from their families?
Karen Harrison:
I would—you know—all that is hazy, but I think at least three months.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, my gosh.
Karen Harrison:
Something like that.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s amazing.
Karen Harrison:
I don’t know. They’ve changed their philosophy completely now.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
But that’s a very long time to be without.
Karen Harrison:
But even six weeks—I don’t know. But it was quite a long time.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So how did the families and patients bear up under that? What kind of frustrations or—? How did they react to that over time?
Karen Harrison:
Well, I didn’t see them—you know—what I’ve described to you is what I’ve seen. I really don’t know more than that, or remember, if I did know.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, it just seems like it would be a really stressful thing to have to endure for so long.
Karen Harrison:
Well, I’m sure that it was, yes. But the whole act, all of cancer, is very stressful.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yes, absolutely. Was that the last job you had before you moved to the Children’s Christmas Card Project?
Karen Harrison:
I think that it was probably the last thing. I increased my days. I went from one day to two. I had 8000 hours when I began working. I had been a recruiter for volunteers.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Tell me about that.
Karen Harrison:
Well, first I brought my husband. He got 10,000 hours, so he outdid me. I’ve really got to go back and get to ten.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So how did you go about recruiting volunteers?
Karen Harrison:
Well, I just had stories to tell them about things that—what was helpful. This was after I was working for the card project. I recruited a former classmate of my husband’s, and I’m sure you’ve written something on him, or will, Rock Rabinowitz. He has more hours, I think, than anybody. He came—since that time, he would come except when ill. He has been ill lately, because he’s well into his 80s. He worked three days a week, 9:00-3:00.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now, why do you think he had such a commitment to MD Anderson and volunteering?
Karen Harrison:
He’s humanly as good a person as I know. And it was a job worth doing.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So was the way you recruited kind of informal, like friends of friends?
Karen Harrison:
Oh, yes.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay, so it wasn’t like there was an official program.
Karen Harrison:
No, just friends.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So how many people do you think, in all, you were able to recruit?
Karen Harrison:
I really don’t— I really don’t know. A lot of people would say, “Ooh, I wouldn’t go there. I wouldn’t go there.” And I’d say, “Well, I never go there that I don’t feel like I have made a contribution. So if you’re interested in a contribution—” And there were people that were interested. Again, as the coordinator for the art project, I came in one day, and there was someone at the front desk answering the phone. I was introduced to her. She and her husband had just come here for a new job, and they were still living in a motel. How she knew about it, I don’t know, but she came to volunteer. Well, I was so delighted with her efficiency and so forth that I said, “I’ll take this one.” I had lunch with her the other day, and we laughed about me saying, “I’ll take this one.” She was a really, really good help.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So you still kept in touch all these years?
Karen Harrison:
Oh, yes.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I was wondering about that—if the volunteers kind of formed a family.
Karen Harrison:
For instance, Rock was at my husband’s memorial service, and I’ve taken him up to A&M to football games after he couldn’t drive. I didn’t take him. I had a driver. As a volunteer, I did make friends with the patients and their friends, and often I would invite them to my house for holidays—Easter and things like that. I asked my daughter yesterday what she remembered about when I volunteered, and she said, “Well, you brought that little girl home from”—I think she was from—I forgot now—Hawaii or somewhere—“and I got to play with her.” Elizabeth was in high school, but she was playing like a babysitter would with her and that sort of thing. And later, the little girl did not live, and her mother asked me to help her pick out the dress for her funeral, for the child. That was complimentary and yet an awesome responsibility.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, you made a real connection with that family. [Redacted]
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
[redacted] And did you feel that you learned how to do that over the years, or was it something that you just knew how to do? How did that work? How did you become able to do that kind of pastoral care?
Karen Harrison:
I guess it’s God’s gift. You’re given certain gifts or talents, and I think it would only be that. I couldn’t do it in my own strength. I treasured them. I have kept up with them through thirty years. I was in Jerusalem for a friend’s wedding about four or five years ago, and they had moved from Iraq to Jordan because of all the war. Netta (???) had remarried. She married another doctor, and they were starting a practice in Jordan. She had three children by this husband, and she, this time, asked me if I would be their grandmother. She didn’t say “godmother” this time. I think that the religion was more important to her husband at that point—the new husband—than it had been to her original one. She asked me if I would be their grandmother, and I said yes. I have kept in touch with them. When I found out that we were really just across the—seventy miles away from Jordan, my granddaughter was with me, and I decided we would go see Netta (???). They are the most hospitable people in the world, the near Asians. I don’t know what you call them.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Iraqis.
Karen Harrison:
Yeah. Well anyway, she wanted me to see Petra, and we spent the night in the desert. We saw native everything, went swimming in the Red Sea, and she just wouldn’t let me do anything. She and her two daughters—the second marriage—my granddaughter and a sister-in-law of hers were doing this traveling, but women in that part of the world don’t travel around by themselves, so her daughter was in medical school, and one of her classmates, a man, she invited—or her mother invited—to be our royal guard. So he went with us everywhere we went, and it was interesting. I ended with another lifetime friend, Bassan Cori (???), who has done work at MD Anderson externships and so forth.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, that’s amazing. How neat.
Karen Harrison:
He has come and stayed with— Oh, when he and my granddaughter were emailing back and forth and he told her he had gotten this externship at Anderson—he was so excited—and he would be coming to Houston for whatever—three months or whatever it was—she emailed back a curt congratulations and said, “And of course you’ll stay with my grandmother.” And he did.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So you really have an international family from your volunteer experience. That’s so neat. And such long relationships with these people too.
Karen Harrison:
And the original, older son lives in California, and his wife is a doctor. She came from Iraq. I’ve enjoyed getting to know her.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So tell me about—you know—from this story, obviously you were able to give this woman a lot of comfort and friendship over the years. When you talk to people, and when you used to talk to people, about volunteering at MD Anderson, how did you explain to them what a volunteer could add to a patient’s experience?
Karen Harrison:
I don’t know that I really was required to explain it to them. I’d probably tell them a story of one of the patients, or one of the volunteers when I was a volunteer was Sister Alice. Now, she was already in the system. I did not recruit her. But it was fun to be able to point out— There was a doctor—I don’t know who he was—that kind of helped support her as a retired nun. She did things, good things, for the patients and all. After I was with the art project, we would have pep rallies to open the season of the cards, and Sister Alice would be a cheerleader.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
In her habit?
Karen Harrison:
No.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
She didn’t wear a habit at that time?
Karen Harrison:
No.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Well, that must have been— I think a lot of nuns were not wearing habits at that time. Did she wear the wimple, I guess it’s called?
Karen Harrison:
I don’t think so. I don’t think she did that either.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s neat. What do you remember about Sister Alice, besides she had so much energy and enthusiasm to cheerlead?
Karen Harrison:
Well, she just was—total giving—total giving, anything. And she was alive and well. Another volunteer that may or may not have been mentioned to you—I’m sure she’s been mentioned to you—was—drawing a blank—Tom Jean Moore. Have you heard that name? There’s a garden dedicated to her outside the chapel. She grew roses. She had done it professionally. She grew them and brought them to any—to Volunteer Services, and we were to take them in to any patient that didn’t have any flowers. And so Tom Jean was a real—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
You know, I think it was Dr. [Emil] J Freireich [Oral History Interview] who mentioned her to me in an interview.
Karen Harrison:
Did he?
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yes. He talked about— He couldn’t remember the name of the volunteer, but he talked about the person who would bring roses to the patients.
Karen Harrison:
That’s Tom Jean Moore.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, that’s really, really neat. So she was a nursery person? She had a nursery, or she grew roses?
Karen Harrison:
She had done it professionally, but she, at that point, lived out west of town, near Boss, I think. It wasn’t that far out. I went to her house several times. That gets hazy. But she had the roses and knew how to grow them and tend them and when to cut them and cared.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s a really neat thing.
Karen Harrison:
Yes.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
A little bit of bright nature in a hospital room makes all the difference sometimes. That’s so neat.
Karen Harrison:
I think that it’s—the garden is right between the chapel and the parking building, right in there. It has her name on it.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, so the new garden is named for her? How wonderful. Yeah, so we’ll get that name, make sure it’s spelled properly and everything.
Recommended Citation
Harrison, Karen K. and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 07: Memorable Volunteers and Caring for Patients" (2013). Interview Chapters. 878.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/878
Conditions Governing Access
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