... on my calendar for Thursday was to pick up another person who needed a ride to an appointment for treatment at the cancer center. He lived down in the south side of town, in a neighborhood I had never visited, so was completely unfamiliar with the area. I had looked up the address on MapQuest, and then didn't follow the directions provided. Started from another point, so decided to use my little GPS to try to get to the right address. It worked pretty well, and the man helped me get to his appointment in time. My only complaint with GPS is you cannot turn it upside down like a paper/printed map to back-track and get back to where you started from.
Fortunately, I paid enough attention to landmarks that when I took him back home I was able to find my way out of the convoluted subdivision and get myself back to familiar territory. I think this is the third person I have done the driving for, in a association with the American Cancer Society. It's not difficult, but my biggest problem is never knowing in advance what my work schedule will be. When I get the emails requesting drivers, I often cannot commit, due to not knowing more than a week in advance when I will have to be ready to go to work. But it is something I can do that I feel makes a difference in someone's life - I have the time and ability to do the driving, and get them to where they need to be for treatment and back home again.
Something interesting I learned on this trip: people experienced with the outpatient programs at the Cancer Center call it' j-back'. I noticed when I was sitting in the waiting area with my book, seeing someone rolled out in a wheel chair, that the letters JBACC were stenciled on the back. Meaning the chair is property of the John B. Amos Cancer Center, other wise known by the acronym: j-back.
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