From age to age: Marge has touched people for 50 years

It was sunny enough that after she enrolled her youngest son in school, she strolled up Sycamore Street for her interview with the nun who ran the volunteer program. Mrs. Spuck said she "wanted to do something different."

That was in 1950. Today, the Delmar resident is an 88-year-old great-grandmother -- and still a volunteer. She was recently honored for logging an amazing 26,000-plus hours of service at St. Peter's in the past 51 years.

Active

"I'm the only volunteer nurse," she boasted of her daily trips to McAuley wing, the hospital's sixth-floor surgical unit. A 1934 graduate of St. Peter's nursing school, Mrs. Spuck has become a household name at the hospital for her gentle bed baths and her enticement of even the crankiest patients.

"The nurses will say, `Oh, gosh, will you go in and do that guy for me? He's terrible,'" she said with a laugh. "He'll say, `Don't touch me,' and I'll say, `Just let me wash your face and hands.' And by the time I'm through, I gave him a whole bath, and we're the best of friends."

Memories

"It's amazing how many patients come back," she said thoughtfully. "I got off the elevator the other day with a guy, and he said, `Oh, my God, you took care of my mother 30 years ago!'"

And the patients do remember. Mrs. Spuck noted that many have become her friends; whatever spare time she has after spending six or seven mornings a week at St. Peter's is often spent having lunch with former patients.

Tributes

"It was an honor and a privilege to meet a wonderful person such as you," reads one letter. "I never received a bath like the ones you were so kind to give me....For the first time in my life, I am considering becoming a volunteer."

Another letter compared Mrs. Spuck to Mother Teresa. "That was pretty nice," she said with some embarrassment.

It's also an interesting comparison: Mrs. Spuck is not Catholic, but a member of Albany's Evangelical Protestant Church. Still, she noted, as a student at St. Peter's nursing school, she often attended Mass with fellow nurses, and many of her friends at the hospital today are Catholics.

Changing healthcare

"The only thing we had was aspirin and morphine," she recalled of earlier days of post-surgical care. "We didn't even have antibiotics."

Hospital stays keep getting shorter, she added: In the 1950s, "for a hernia, it was three weeks. Now, they don't even stay overnight!"

Mrs. Spuck doesn't believe all the changes are good, however. She misses the days when a patient was able to walk the halls and chat with her three weeks after gall bladder surgery. Now, that patient stays in the hospital for only one night.

"A lot of the personal is gone," the volunteer remarked.

Cancer and death

"All this colon cancer. It's so bad," she said sadly. "It's got to come from something. The ovarian cancers, they don't catch them soon enough. They've got to do something about research."

Even after all this time, patients with terminal illnesses affect her. "I just go in and talk to them," she said. "One woman, she's only 60, and they said there's no more they can do for her. I feel so bad."

Still, Mrs. Spuck said, she never thinks about "retiring" from volunteering. "Oh, I couldn't!" she said, dismayed at the idea. "That'd be the farthest thing from my mind. I love being with people and helping people, and I love seeing them get better if they can."

Staying busy

"They don't say too much, because they know I'm going to do it regardless," she remarked.

At 88, she'll only admit to being slightly less active than she once was. "I've slowed up," she confessed. "I've got a bum shoulder -- that's from lifting patients."

But she still rises at 6:15 a.m. each day, and keeps careful track of her hours and the miles she puts on her car in traveling to the hospital, whatever the weather. "I think in January, I missed a couple of days," she said.

Staying well

When the sickest patients beg to "wait for Marge" to give them a bed bath, she noted, the long hours are worthwhile.

"I don't get 'em all done," she said, "but it makes you feels so good. It's something I love."

(For information on volunteering at St. Peter's, call 525-1515.)

(06-28-01) [[In-content Ad]]