TEMPLE TERRACE — Maryrose Owens loaded her SUV with coolers full of hot and frozen meals Friday — just enough food to carry 11 older, homebound people through the weekend before another volunteer brings food to their doorstop Monday morning.
She turned her key in her ignition and heard a heart-sinking thud.
Her car battery was dead.
It only took a few moments for Owens, 84, to get a jump and hit the road to start her deliveries for Meals on Wheels of Tampa, just as she’s done for 40 years. The former nurse signed up as a volunteer the day the Tampa chapter of the nonprofit opened in 1975, and the first meal she delivered was the first one served to anyone in Temple Terrace.
“I had just retired from my career in nursing and I thought, ‘Gee, this is a way I can still help people,” Owens said. “You just go out of your way a little bit and it makes you so happy and they’re so grateful.”
Back then, there were only three people signed up to receive meals in her Temple Terrace neighborhood. Now, Owens serves as route coordinator, ensuring that five drivers deliver meals every day to about 50 recipients in the city. She also makes time to deliver her own routes and allows new volunteers to shadow her on routes until they feel more comfortable on their own.
The dead battery wasn’t the only snag in Owens’ plans Friday morning, but she runs her routes like a well-oiled machine. A new recipient’s apartment complex is being renovated, and every building number had been removed. Owens got to work flagging down construction workers and the complex manager, determined to deliver her fajita chicken, beans and rice before it went cold.
“When I finish a route I feel good because you’ve helped people who sometimes don’t have anybody else,” Owens said. “There are people that sit and do nothing when they could be out providing a service to help others, and I never did understand that.”
Owens has lived in Tampa her entire life, apart from a few years spent in Savannah, Georgia, when she was in nursing school. She began working at the old St. Joseph’s Hospital on Seventh Avenue, worked in several doctors’ offices and ended her career with 15 years in geriatrics.
Sometimes Owens’ husband, Bobby, will drive her on her routes now that her vision is fading, and before her mother died, she, too, would tag along. Owens has gained a reputation for recruiting friends and family from her many community clubs.
They spend their Friday mornings with Owens, waiting for coolers and warming-bags full of hot meals to arrive in the parking lot of Temple Terrace Presbyterian Church. The women talk University of Florida football and the latest happenings at the Temple Terrace Women’s Club, the Temple Terrace Garden Club or Corpus Christi Catholic Church.
They also talk about their recipients, and how more than 550 Meals on Wheels volunteers go out of their way to feed about 750 homebound people every day.
“She’s been with us from the beginning and really is the ultimate volunteer,” said Jan Costello, Meals on Wheels recipient intake coordinator.
Owens doesn’t need a GPS or smartphone to navigate the winding neighborhood roads of Temple Terrace, and she remembers the faces, names and homes of nearly every recipient on her five routes.
There are a few who wait outside for their meals to be delivered, and some have dogs or cats that jump at the chance to run as soon as the door opens. One apartment complex is notorious for leaving its gate closed. One woman nursing a leg fracture has trouble getting to her door, so Owens opens her garage and places her meal in an easily accessible refrigerator.
When a few of her recipients don’t answer the door, Owens’ grind comes to a halt. She makes calls to their homes, and to the Meals on Wheels office, but she still worries.
“You get really attached to your people and you worry about them when they’re not there; you’re afraid something’s happened to them and sometimes it has,” Owens said. “It’s hard because many of them are home alone all the time and have no one to talk to, but you have to limit yourself because you have other meals to deliver and other people you need to see.”
The volunteers are a daily check on those who live alone, she said. A diligent volunteer could mean the difference between life and death.
Owens and her husband never had children; she said she knows God had a reason. When she greets each of her recipients with the smile of an old friend, the reason becomes clear.
One woman on her route remarked that she couldn’t afford to run her air conditioning during the hot Florida days, so Owen and her husband surprised her with a fan — a small gift that made her “the happiest lady you could imagine,” Owen said.
If a regular recipient doesn’t open the door the first time Owen stops by, she’ll call or check back with them later on in the day even though she isn’t required to.
“She is truly dedicated, pleasant to work with, always looking to improve,” Costello said. “She’s always looking to make the world a better place.”
adawson@tampatrib.com
(813) 731-8093
@TBOadawson
About Meals On Wheels of Tampa:
Meals On Wheels of Tampa has been committed to nourishing and enriching the independent lives of the homebound and seniors of Tampa since 1975. Today, Meals On Wheels of Tampa serves over 700 people with a hot meal during the lunch hour. Meals On Wheels of Tampa is a 4-star charity and relies on its community for support by not accepting government funding.
Follow Meals On Wheels of Tampa on Facebook | Linkedin | Twitter | Google+ | Instagram | YouTube
