Hulleta Carey, who turns 84-years-old this month, has been volunteering with Kosciusko Home Care and Hospice for the last 21 years. Once per week, she visits with a patient to talk, play board games, do a bit of housework and give the primary caregiver a little break. “When I don’t have a patient to visit, I feel a little lost! Every one of them has a special story.” (Photo provided)

“When I don’t have a patient to visit, I feel a little lost! Every one of them has a special story.”

Hulleta Carey, who turns 84 years old this month, has been volunteering with Kosciusko Home Care and Hospice for the last 21 years. Once per week, she visits with a patient to talk, play board games, do a bit of housework and give the primary caregiver a little break.

“My husband and I took care of my mother and my mother-in-law many years ago. People told us we could get hospice to help, but I didn’t know anything about it,” said Carey. “After experiencing the benefits of hospice personally, I decided to volunteer.”

Carey answered an advertisement in the newspaper seeking hospice volunteers, took a class and never looked back.

“I visited with one woman for a year who was the same age as I was. We had a lot in common and became fast friends,” said Carey.

When asked if her volunteer work with hospice is sad, Carey says, “Of course it is! I go to the funerals and cry just like the family cries. But, I know I’ve done something to help these special people at the end of their lives.”

Carey enjoys talking to patients about their bucket lists. She started her own bucket list before her 80th birthday with a goal to walk 80 miles. Instead, she wound up walking 160 miles before her 80th birthday. Carey continues to walk regularly and does water aerobics at the YMCA.

A retired school teacher, Carey taught 6th grade at Warsaw’s Lincoln Elementary School in the same classroom for 29 years. She still enjoys seeing her students, some of them who are in their 60s. Matt, her oldest grandson, became a teacher too.

“I loved teaching up to the very last day,” she said.

Carey and her husband, Larry, have been married for 66 years and have four grown children, 25 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. The couple met in Sunday school as kids and got married when they were teenagers.

Avid travellers, the Careys have been to all 50 states, Europe, Mexico and Costa Rica. This month, they will take a bus trip to North Carolina.

“I thank the Lord everyday for good health,” said Carey, who is an active member of her church, Warsaw Wesleyan. “I am blessed that several of my children and grandchildren have developed a love for missions work and volunteering too.”