The House That Love Built

Being a part of the medical community has allowed me to see a lot of grief, tragedy, hurt, sorrow, and pain. But there’s also the healing and happiness part of it that isn’t always seen by everyone.

I’m a grown man with 3 kids, all of them still in elementary school. The one thing that’s probably gotten harder as they’ve grown older is me dealing with pediatric patients. I picture my kids as the ones in front of me. I treat the kids like my own. They hurt, so I hurt. They want comfort, hopefully I can do something to provide that to them regardless if their parent or guardian is there or not.

My “real job” is doing construction safety, basically OSHA compliance on a construction site. My current job is at the only Level 1 trauma facility in the state of Indiana for kids; Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health. The drive is long every day and so are the hours, but being here, being a part of this fantastic place in a small insignificant way makes it all worthwhile. This is one of those places where miracles happen daily.

Recently I got a chance to tour the Ronald McDonald House located here within the facility. They only have 6 beds here for patients’ families but they offer a place to rest, relax, get away from the beeping pumps, monitor alarms, and noises associated with being in a patient’s room or unit. The House Director showed me the rooms and told me about what they do, who they see, and why they do what they do; they provide a respite, a place of healing and rest that families so desperately need as they’re here with their child receiving treatment or life-saving intervention.

The Director showed me the journals that were in every room that families who stayed there often read and then wrote in, in their own words, about their own personal story. How I would have loved to have read those stories but it would have ripped my heart out. I also respect everyone’s privacy and the need for peer support, such that I could not give them as I haven’t been in their shoes.

Today we had a site lunch and I asked the Director to come up and speak as many of the guys and gals here have heard of the Ronald McDonald House at Riley but don’t know much, if anything, about it. Daun Hughey and Joe Schulz, the Director of Development, came up to speak and brought this video for everyone to see. As the video played about the Ronald McDonald House both here at Riley and one just around the corner from here, I scanned the room of grown men and women, sitting quietly in chairs after eating lunch, to see their reactions. A couple looked away from the screen, another couple dozen dabbed at their eyes, more nodded their heads, but everyone and I mean everyone had their attention firmly on that video. Priceless, simply priceless. 

The people of our site are building this hospital for those kids and their families. They’ve heard of some of the things that happen here but now they got to see a side that few others do. They got to hear and see what some of the families have to go through, the hardships they’ve faced, and how they get through every single day while they stay here for days, weeks, and months with their sick child getting possibly the best medical care in the US. Riley is one of those places everyone hopes they never need but thank God every day that it is in case we do.

 

If you’re ever in Indianapolis and have the need to feel loved and welcomed, feel grateful for what you have, want to donate a little time, money, or supplies, I urge you to stop by the Ronald McDonald House here at Riley. Daun has a "wish list," as she calls it, that always needs things checked off of it. I’ll personally take you there, introduce you to the Director and some of the awesome families and volunteers who call the Ronald McDonald House at Riley their second home. You’ll see very quickly that it is truly, “the house that love built.”

Here's another link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGPgeZSSDDA
And here's one to the Ronald McDonald House www.rmh-indiana.org/