The Bianchis have time for others

John Bianchi threatens to hide the household calendar from his wife, Evelyn.

"I say, 'Don't touch the calendar next week' -- and before I know it, she's got all the squares filled in!" he complains, shaking his head.

It's an empty complaint, however, because Mr. Bianchi readily admits that he enjoys volunteer work as much as Mrs. Bianchi does -- a fact recognized when the couple recently received a "healthcare excellence award" from St. Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam, where both are volunteers.

Giving time

The Bianchis, married 50 years and parishioners of St. Mary's Church in Amsterdam, give an interview as rapid-fire as a veteran comedy team:

"My father was very active in the Church," Mrs. Bianchi informs The Evangelist. "My mother used to say she'd lose her husband for two weeks twice a year, because he'd be working on the church spaghetti dinner! He made everything at home, you know. He'd be there, stirring the meatballs...."

The conversation abruptly leaps to the couple's many volunteer outlets. "I've been in the [St. Mary's Hospital] Auxiliary for 45 years," Mrs. Bianchi notes.

"I'm a patient rep" for the hospital, her husband adds: "It's mandated by the state to advise patients of their rights; I give them a copy of the Patients' Bill of Rights and read it to them if they don't understand. And if they have a complaint -- they didn't like the food; the TV don't work -- we have to follow up. I've [visited] as much as 45 patients in a day."

"I still have another committee I'm on!" Mrs. Bianchi interrupts, wanting to finish her list. "It's the steering committee for Healing Touch Buddies. We promote healing touch, offer free sessions to breast cancer survivors....Healing touch is something I promote very highly. It's relaxing."

Support group

Another large part of her volunteer time is spent leading a support group for women with breast cancer. Mrs. Bianchi was a charter member in 1981, the year she had a mastectomy.

When she visits patients with the same condition, she sassily asks them to guess which breast she had removed. When the patient realizes that, with a prosthesis, it's hard to tell, she continues: "This is how you'll look after you're well."

When she was diagnosed, she notes, Mr. Bianchi was her only emotional support. Decades after her full recovery, her husband still supports her in simple ways: writing out raffle tickets for gift baskets at a breast cancer luncheon, for instance.

"It keeps us busy, and we're giving something back to the community," he said of the breakneck schedule the pair keep.

Using his noodle

Both also serve on the Montgomery County Traffic Safety Board, promoting seat-belt use and DWI prevention. Mr. Bianchi jokes that one of his favorite duties has been buying noodles.

Years ago, he explains, police officers held safety days to show families the proper installation of car seats. When one didn't fit correctly, Mr. Bianchi saw to it that a supply of foam "noodles," usually used as swimming pool toys, were at hand. The police would tuck them around the seat to fill in the gaps.

"We also cook the food" at safety board gatherings, Mrs. Bianchi puts in, allowing that she flips a pretty good hamburger.

Teammates

The healthcare excellence award is the Bianchis' second honor. In 2000, the Office of the Aging named them "senior citizen team of the year." The couple shrugs off all the fuss.

"Guess our ages!" Mrs. Bianchi says conspiratorially. After a pause, she says, "He's 82, and I'm 77! A doctor told us, 'It's what the two of you do that keeps you the way you are.'"

When you volunteer, she says, "you just don't think about anything but the job you're doing, and it keeps your mind occupied."

"I see too many people, they go down to the OTB or a bar!" Mr. Bianchi says. He won't waste much time on such pursuits because "life is too beautiful."

In fact, the couple have discussed the possibility of adding more volunteer work, but that calendar on their wall is already full.

"There's no way we can squeeze it in!" Mr. Bianchi declares.

(The Bianchis have a son who lives in Philadelphia and a daughter in New Jersey, and two teenage grandchildren. When they're not volunteering, they like to attend Navy reunions of Mr. Bianchi's World War II shipmates. In a city the size of Amsterdam, Mr. Bianchi said, "I visit people, and I can come out of the room crying. These are people I know, and they're dying. I look in the paper the next day and see that they're gone. It makes me feel very lucky." As New York State debates closing healthcare facilities, St. Mary's and Amsterdam Memorial Hospitals have decided to be proactive in working together. The Bianchis believe that Amsterdam needs both hospitals. Mrs. Bianchi recalled a patient at the bustling St. Mary's: "She said to me, 'I don't dare miss my mammogram, because I'll have to wait another two or three months!'")

(3/15/07) [[In-content Ad]]