‘Dealing With Miss Ethel’

Although Al Martinez’s column “Dealing With Miss Ethel” (May 30) about his trauma with “Miss Ethel” at Tarzana Hospital was amusing, I must take issue with his inference that hospital volunteers are all 70-ish, simply have time on their hands, and are “not too bright!”

Volunteer workers at hospitals are of all ages and offer untold (non-medical) assistance for no pay. It isn’t that they simply have time on their hands, it is simply that “they have time” to work in gift shops, manage blood banks, provide clerical assistance, work at reception or admitting desks--in other words, assist in any of more than a dozen and a half areas. I have been a volunteer in the gift shop at St. John’s Medical Center in Santa Monica for 18 months. I can’t believe the services provided by male and female volunteers at St. John’s. They need our help and our smiles.

I am also a new volunteer at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in its Heartline Program, a support group for heart surgery patients. We Heartline volunteers have all had heart surgery, also.

Therefore, after 41 years of being a businesswoman I have time to give, as do hundreds and hundreds of other volunteers who are willing to offer business expertise or do some menial task such as stuffing envelopes, because the hospital needs our help.

Whether it be Tarzana Hospital, St. John’s, Good Samaritan, St. Vincent’s, etc., volunteer workers are worth their salt (in gold) for their services. It would be difficult for hospital administrators to estimate the value of our free and willing services. They need us. Perhaps “Miss Ethel” just had a bad day!

MARGARET M. CLOUD

Playa del Rey