This was on the front page, above the fold, of my hometown newspaper this morning:

(photo by Ashley Rittenhouse)

“Marietta resident Rose Murray reviews paperwork with Adele Long, a nurse practitioner who volunteers with the Washington County Free Clinic. The clinic provides free primary care for Washington County residents between ages 19 and 64 who do not have health insurance and whose personal income is less than 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines. It is located in Marietta College’s Physician Assistant Training Program building on Third Street in Marietta.”

I knew my mom was doing this, and frankly it didn’t surprise me.  However, I only found out because one of her patients a few months ago at the clinic was an old friend of mine from high school.  Even more interestingly it was only brought up because we were arguing with someone else about how hard it is to get healthcare in America.  Otherwise I wouldn’t have found out until my father posted the link to the Marietta Times article on facebook today.

Of course I called her after seeing it and she was immediately embarrassed about being in the paper and even more embarrassed that my dad was posting it on facebook (she’s not on facebook – thank god – so I think she might not grasp how benign what he did was).  Even when she’s finally recognized for basically what amounts to volunteer charity work she doesn’t want credit for it.

I hope one day our healthcare system won’t need someone like my mother to donate her time, because I don’t think there are a lot of Adele Longs out there.

This is just another thing to add to the list of how my mother inspires me.   Her kindness and generosity are not just limited to her own family.