Sometimes, in the middle of her shift, when the phone's not ringing and there is no one in the lobby, Karen Sheets will wander back into the kitchen. Of all the rooms in the Ronald McDonald House, the kitchen seems most familiar.
One afternoon in early December, a reporter called Sheets and woke her up. "Alex is in the hospital," Sheets said, sounding sleepy and sad. "It happens pretty often to a young man who has these intestinal problems." He'd been in the hospital for four days. Sheets thought he'd come home in three or four more days. Her husband, Alexander's stepfather, was with him and Sheets was home, napping. She'd been up all night with Alex. "He's pulling his IVs out," she said, wearily. She said she wouldn't be going in to volunteer that Friday.Yesterday evening was nearly ruined by a lovers' tiff between Stuart and Michelle, who had spent hours getting dressed up for the girls' rendition of a Moulin Rouge number.Nineteen years ago, Sheets and her two preschoolers spent eight months at the Ronald McDonald House in Gainesville. Her baby, who was born with a number of problems, was at a nearby hospital.Another phone call a week later found Sheets more like her cheerful self, but still not sure when she'd go back to volunteering. Alex was home and she was worried about him. When he was born, she said, she was not given a prognosis on how long he might live. All she knows is that he does not bounce back from an illness, not like he did when he was a little boy. "The older he gets, the more scared I get," she said.One Friday, when she went to volunteer, Sheets met a mom who hadn't been to see her baby in two days. The dad went to the hospital, but the mom stayed in her room at the Ronald McDonald House. She was heartbroken and overwhelmed. She said her little girl had so many problems that there was nothing a mother could do for her.Sheets told the woman that she had a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old when her newborn, Alexander, was life-flighted to a hospital far from their home. Sheets' husband couldn't quit his job because they desperately needed the insurance. So she brought her kids with her to a Ronald McDonald House and she called a church in Gainesville and she found someone to baby-sit her healthy kids.Also on the bill are two fresh up-and-coming acts ( Juliet Myers from London and James Christopher from York.When she sees people in the kitchen, Sheets will pitch in. She'll get out the bread and hand them some mustard and start a conversation.Danny is confident, charismatic and charming. He has the ability to hold any audience in the palm of his hand.Later, Sheets reflected on her own baby's first few months of life. She said that if they told you you were going to have a child with a feeding tube in his stomach, and a colostomy bag a few inches away from that, a child who is neurologically impaired and deaf, and on and on . . . you would say "I can't do it."When Sheets stands in the kitchen of this house on South Temple, she feels like it is 19 years ago, and she is back in the kitchen of the Ronald McDonald House in Gainesville, Fla.Soon a little boy came scooting into the kitchen. Two-year-old Joshua Reynolds had just been discharged from the hospital. His mom was finishing a load of laundry and then they were going home. Sheets hugged him goodbye.The headmaster decided that Stuart should stand in the corner facing the wall and wear a dunce's cap, while Michelle was forced to write 100 lines."She can't hear. She can't see," the mom told Sheets. "She can smell you," Sheets said. "You can touch her. She can feel that." And then, Sheets said, with conviction, "You can do this." And the next Friday, when Sheets came into the House, she saw the mom leaving for the hospital and she asked how it was going, and the mom said, "I'm doing it."Sheets is glad to be spending one afternoon a week at the Ronald McDonald House on South Temple. For years she's wanted to repay some of the gift she was given.But you start in only knowing about a few of his problems and you do it for one day, Sheets says. You sit with your child in the hospital and you listen to the doctors and ask questions and remind people of what your child needs. Then you do it the next day.The first day she worked on the desk, she was surprised by the very first family she saw entering the lobby. She looked at their faces and could tell they had been crying. Suddenly she remembered what it was like when the pain was new and she was intensely grateful that the newness, for her, was 19 years in the past.Headliner for the evening will be Mike Milligan, an ever-popular funnyman who is in great demand at the prestigious Jongleurs chain of comedy clubs and has won much critical acclaim from audiences around the country for his inventive wit and razor sharp comic skills.Sheets and her older kids came to the house in the early fall and didn't leave until after Easter. Every autumn since then, Sheets finds herself thinking of Florida, remembering the year her family spent every major holiday at the Ronald McDonald House.When she came to the House, she expected she would be able to empathize with the families she met. She looked forward to sharing their burden. But their grief was to take her unawares.Next, Sheets talked to a young woman whose newborn was in University Hospital. The young woman told Sheets that her husband said she wasn't doing herself any good by spending every minute at the hospital. She has another child who needs her, too, the husband said. As the young mother talked, she seemed to want advice from Sheets. All Sheets could say is, "I know how you feel."One Friday in November she met the mom, a grandmother and the10- year-old sister of a girl who was in Shriners having spinal surgery. They'd come from Wyoming and Iowa for the girl's hospital stay. Sheets was able to get a few smiles from the sister, as they spread mayonnaise together.The average family can't afford to rent a motel for weeks or months. Ronald McDonald Houses give parents of sick children a place to stay for a few dollars a night, a place with a well-stocked kitchen and a playroom for their other kids.Main support comes from precocious Manchester talent Danny Deegan, who has a knack of weaving hilarious stories around the ridiculous escapades from his wayward youth.Sheets said she felt guilty leaving the older children with strangers all day. But she also felt guilty if she wasn't with her sick baby every second. "You are the only one who can decide where you should be," she told the mom.For more information visit www.funnybonescomedy.co.uk
When Alex was in the hospital this last time, at Primary Children's, Sheets ran into some of the parents who were staying at the Ronald McDonald House. She explained why she looked familiar. She talked to them. She asked them to tell her, quite frankly, if there was anything that could be improved about the House.
Author: Susan Whitney Deseret Morning News
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