Business is business. Friendship is friendship. How fun it is when the two click together like a seat belt.
The first half of this equation is Doreen Busch. Talk about going above and beyond the call of duty. She is a volunteer driver for Catholic Community Services in Everett.
I would have thought taking a patient to a doctor’s visit once a week or so would be a very nice donation to the community, but Busch drives her client three times each week. More than 80 miles round trip. With a four-hour gap in between, which she fills with other volunteer chores. Put that in your volunteer pipe and smoke it.
The second half of the equation is Ed Avery, 66, walking around with a donated heart and in need of kidney dialysis each week. Busch leaves her Marysville home, picks up Avery at his house between Arlington and Stanwood, delivers him to the Puget Sound Kidney Center in downtown Everett, does paperwork for Catholic Community Services for four hours, picks up Avery after his treatment, then takes him home.
Sometimes they stop for dinner at the Buzz Inn and gab.
Busch gets words in edgewise, but it’s a hoot just listening to Avery. The former Teamster used to drive movie stars to locations and studios. He drops names like Linda Carter, Ben Gazarra, Katharine Hepburn, Barbra Streisand, George Segal and Ben Johnson.
“Janet Lee, she’s a love,” Avery said. “Barbara Eden, really sweet.”
Avery received a woman’s heart in a transplant operation about five years ago. He never met the family that donated the heart, but he said if God made something better than a woman, he kept it to himself. He’s also got shingles, skin cancer and that bum kidney.
“I got a new heart and everything else fell apart,” the New York native said. “I had my first heart attack at age 37.”
Though he still drives short distances, he doesn’t feel up to making the commute to the Everett dialysis center. That’s where Busch comes in with her black Toyota Camry LE. She volunteers 15 to 65 hours a week driving folks like Avery to dialysis or doctor appointments.
Richard Vogan, volunteer transportation program coordinator for Catholic Community Services, said Busch has been both inspirational and comforting to many clients.
“I often refer to her as my ‘volunteer angel,’” Vogan said. “She has been a voice and advocate to those most vulnerable and in need. Her caring nature and smiling face shine in the wake of difficult circumstances. Doreen is truly an integral part of a much-needed solution.”
When her children were young, Busch, 48, did foster care in her home. She mentioned that volunteers for Catholic Community Services or clients don’t have to be Catholic. She used to call 15 elderly clients each morning to make sure they had made it through the night.
She began driving for Catholic Community Services more than eight years ago, after her kids got older. She is reimbursed 30 cents for each mile she drives.
“I enjoy meeting people like Ed,” Busch said. “I’ve met terrific people. Some in their 80s and 90s with wonderful stories to tell.”
She and Avery have formed a trusting friendship, she said. They stop for lunch or have dinner when he feels up to stopping on the way home after a treatment.
“We ask each other’s advice,” Ed Avery said. “We keep things between us.”
When Busch recently picked up Avery, they greeted each another with a big hug. Avery said he wondered what he would do without his driver. He has tried to connect with paratransit buses, but the schedule didn’t work out.
“I want Doreen to drive me,” Avery said. “She’s has saved my life so much.”
Busch, who has been married for 29 years, showed me a Christmas ornament Avery gave her that dangles from her rearview mirror. That week, she took a another client to a Seattle doctor’s appointment. The grateful woman couldn’t believe her volunteer driver would wait and take her back home.
“I love helping people,” Busch said. “And Ed makes a really good friend. My goal since childhood was to be a nurse. But I think the direction I have gone is far more rewarding.”
Her e-mail address begins with “earthangel.”
It’s a perfect name.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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