Sparkling a Room

Nov 13, 2015

Denni Smith

Denni Smith

I asked Denni if I could take her photo and interview her for this blog and she obliged. I want you to meet her because she is such an asset to United Methodist Elder Care. I wish that we could claim Denni as only our’s, but the truth is Denni has two children at home, works another job AND attends college classes.  She belongs to the world.  But Monday through Friday from 7 AM to 3 PM, we have Denni here at Linn Health Care Center.  She doesn’t just vacuum and perform other housekeeping duties, Denni sparkles a room by brightening it with her cheerful disposition.  She can instantly put a person at ease – it is just a talent that she has.

I ask Denni, “What is the scariest thing that ever happened to you over the past four years on the job?” She relays a story to me: “One day while I was mopping the hallway in Linn Health Care Center, one of our residents was passing by and suddenly became faint.  As she was falling, she reached out and grabbed onto my mop, which alerted me just in time to catch her, preventing her from hitting the floor.  I was so scared.”

“Why Denni – you are a hero!” I exclaim.

“Nahhh”, Denni laughs humbly, “I was just so glad that I was there and able to catch her.”

We won’t always be so lucky to have Denni working with us because she is studying to be a phlebotomist and we don’t employ those.  I ask her “How does a sweet gal like you ever want to puncture people’s blood vessels?”

She explains, “I became motivated from an experience I had with a very bad phlebotomist. She had zero people skills and didn’t even say hello back to me when I greeted her. I figured that I could be better than her at helping people relax.”

Ah, making lemonade out of lemons – how Denni is that?

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