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 The
Upper Room
The Upper Room is an apartment at Ardmore Christian Church that is
used for lodging those who live out of town, and are with patients at
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Occupancy is coordinated with
the hospital.
Winston-Salem Journal: Published:
January 30, 1999
Churches lodge visitors who are in town for
medical care
By John Railey
JOURNAL REPORTER
When Willard Workman returned here last fall
to undergo a
grueling series of radiation treatments, Winston-Salem seemed
strange to him.
''It's sort of like Thomas Wolfe said in one of his books: You
can't go home again. It's almost like being in the twilight
zone,''
Workman said.
He had lived here most of his adult life, but moved to Maine
several years ago. He was 82 and frail upon his return here, and
couldn't find a place to live while he underwent outpatient
treatments.
But a ministry partnership between the Division of Pastoral Care
at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and three city
churches eased his problem. Since November, Workman and his
wife, Beatrice, have been staying in an apartment in Ardmore
Christian Church on South Hawthorne Road, just minutes from
the hospital.
Ardmore Christian Church opened its apartment in December
1997, becoming the third church to join the 5-year-old program.
Ardmore Moravian Church and South Fork Baptist Church offer
houses to patients and their families. Since its inception,
organizers said, the program has helped hundreds of Baptist
Hospital patients and their families. For people like Workman,
who is undergoing treatment for cancer of the salivary gland,
the
program is a godsend. ''I'm not a brave man or anything like
that.
It taxes me. But I have my faith.''
Ardmore Christian Church members call their apartment The
Upper Room, after the room where Jesus met with his apostles.
A former pastor's office, it has been converted into a cozy
one-bedroom apartment with a kitchen and den.
The den features walls of varnished, knotty-pine and shelves
stacked with books on religion, as well as novels by Ernest
Hemingway, John Grisham and James Joyce.
The Workmans made the apartment their own. In the den, they
hung a clock that has a different bird sing on each hour. One of
their favorite plants, an impatiens, soaks up the sunbeams that
splash through the kitchen window.
Workman made his living here as a draftsman. After his
retirement, he frequently visited his daughter, who lives in
Maine.
A widower, he met Beatrice on one of his Maine visits. She, too,
had lost her spouse.
The Workmans now split their time between Livermore, Maine,
and New Port Richey, Fla.
They could have afforded to rent an apartment, they said, but
couldn't find a landlord who would give them a short-term lease.
They have made a donation to the church and plan to make
another one. They heard about the church's apartment through
hospital workers.
Willard Workman's radiation treatments ended last week, and he
and his wife planned to go to their Florida mobile home this
weekend. They will be glad to get there, they said, but the
apartment provided them a haven through a trying time.
They spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and their birthdays in the
apartment. On many days, Willard Workman would be so
drained from his treatments that he would just come home and try
to sleep.
''I've never suffered anything like it in my life,'' he said.
''They're
devastating, as far as sapping your energy.''
The treatments have burned the right side of his face. Surgery has
damaged his nerves and muscles, causing the right side of his
face
to sag. The radiation has sapped his sense of taste.
His wife fixes him soft foods such as oatmeal and bananas, Jell-O
and soup. It all tastes like sawdust to him, Workman said.
The members of Ardmore Christian Church knew what the
Workmans were going through and often checked in on them.
The Workmans, who are born-again Baptists, sometimes
attended services at Ardmore Christian Church.
They prayed in their apartment, Willard Workman said, even
though God already knows about his cancer. ''I mention it. I
tell
Him that I need help.''
The members of Ardmore Christian Church, just as the members
of other churches involved in the program, are glad to help the
Workmans and the other patients and their families. ''It's
blessed
us as well as a lot of other people,'' said JoAnn Goodson, a
member of Ardmore Moravian who helps with her church's guest
house.
Some of the church volunteers, such as Vera Byrd of Ardmore
Christian Church, know all too well what it's like not to have
such
guest quarters.
In the early 1970s, Byrd's husband was at the Veterans
Administration Hospital in Salisbury being treated for
Alzheimer's
disease. She grew weary of the commuting, she said, and is
happy to help with the guest-house program.
''There is a great need for it,'' said Byrd, 76.
Her husband died in 1973. She is a retired nurse's aid.
Though financial need is not an entry requirement, program
partners do try to help needy patients and their families, said
the
Rev. Jay Foster, a chaplain supervisor of the pastoral-care
program. He helps coordinate the guest-home program. Families
must also be from outside the region, and the patient must be
facing an extended stay in the hospital.
Volunteers do not evangelize to patients and their families.
The program is open to patients of all ages, Foster said, but
they
try to cater to adult patients, because the Ronald McDonald
House is better geared to younger patients and their families.
Workman said that his doctors have done about all they can in 33
radiation treatments. He doesn't know if he is cured, but he
doesn't worry.
''I know God is able to heal me, but I don't know whether he will
or not. But a Christian, they can't lose. If this is cured, and
I have
more years left, praise the Lord. If not, I'll be with him
sooner.''
Workman would like to return the favor that the members of
Ardmore Christian Church have done for him. He is not sure
exactly how to do that, he said, because his Baptist church in
Maine isn't ready for such a project.
''Our little church that we go to, it's not strong enough,'' he
said.
Foster hopes that more churches here will get involved, because
there is always a waiting list for the program. What's
especially
needed, he said, is churches that will offer boarding space for
short periods.
The program provides a much-needed refuge, Beatrice
Workman said.
''It was really a home away from home.''
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