Listening Volunteer Ann 42 explains why she became a Samaritan.
I came to Worthing branch in 2012 to enrol as a listening volunteer, to experience the training, the support, to become a team player, and embrace as I do today the ethics and values of Samaritans. It has been a brilliant decade of my many decades of living. In 2023 it is even more important to offer a listening ear with compassion, empathy, and patience. It is the gift of giving, as who are we to judge as we have not walked in their shoes? So why did I volunteer? This is my story.
My Life is roller coaster ride of success and utter failure. Professionally I have been a ballet/tap/modern dancer tripping the boards at 16, then 20 years as a debt collector, holding very different phone conversations with people. On a personal level two failed marriages, two brilliant children and an addiction that took me to places I never want to visit again. In 1985 I crashed the car, wandered off, ended up lying in the gutter drunk as a skunk, wondering why was the world looking down on me? That was the moment when the candle of hope deep in my soul was no longer alight.
Non Judgemental strangers picked me up, dusted me down, said I never needed to be like this again and set me on the road of recovery that I step along, one day at a time. I have been shown forgiveness,compassion and unconditional love, in rebuilding the family relationships I have today. That bring so much joy, it makes my soul sing.
I have friends in the fellowship I belong to who have held my hand through difficult days, and in the branch that walk by my side when life gets tough, friends I trained with - we still meet 10 years on for a meal, the special one who picks you up at 3am in the morning to take you to the airport for your first holiday abroad since 2019. How can I not be grateful for what I have been given?
One tough lady said to me, "you say you are grateful, so put your words into action", hence I give back by being a night owl at the branch, listening to our callers, having a cuppa with my co volunteer, knowing my Leader is on hand if needed, I am one lucky lady.
If you would like to volunteer with Worthing Samaritans, visit our Volunteering page.