MORGANTOWN – It’s not that Jacob Mulder doesn’t embody authority.
Mulder, who is manager of volunteer services at Vandalia Health Mon Medical Center, does – in a friendly, hospitable way that holds true to his Wisconsin roots.
Even if he did have a bit of a challenge on Wednesday.
“If I don’t get a group photo now,” he chuckled that afternoon at the hospital on J.D. Anderson Drive, “I’m not gonna get a group photo.”
You can’t fault him for not being able to properly herd for the visual record, however.
It’s because people who turned out were there to see Linda Staddon. There were hugs to deploy, hands to clasp and stories to tell.
That’s what the Morgantown woman by way of Preston County gets, for serving 40 years there as a volunteer.
She started volunteering in 1986 after her kids were grown and on with their kids and careers.
“I needed to have something to do,” she said. “It’s been good. You get to help people.”
Should that sound like she’s hanging up her smock for good – she’s not.
“Call it a leave of absence,” she said. “I’ll be back in the fall. Probably around the holidays.”
In the meantime, she plans on visiting her children and grandchildren this summer while generally taking it easy, which she doesn’t necessarily have time to do as a volunteer at Mon Health.
The hospital is known for its volunteer cadre.
As Staddon has also been known to state, they may not check your blood pressure or perform your surgery – but they are always there for your emotional health.
Hey, she said: A smiling face and pleasant answer is always good for what ails you.
Staddon soon joined the hospital’s auxiliary as well, where she took part in fundraisers and got herself elected president on a couple of occasions.
She visited several hospitals across West Virginia in that role – while also making a friendship with the late Bill Stewart, the coach of West Virginia University’s football Mountaineers.
“It didn’t take 40 years long to get here,” she said.
Meanwhile, Mulder got his group shot. It was right down from the main lobby and just up from the Heart and Vascular Center, which wasn’t there in 1986, Staddon said.
There are also plenty of things that are no longer there, she said.
Some, she misses.
For others, she can only shake her head.
“The gift shop used to sell cigarettes. Can you imagine?”
