Gratitude Is Showered on Ronald McDonald House’s Caring Couple : Haven: The facility in Orange has sheltered more than 250 people with sick children or other problems since it opened.

Five days after she gave birth by Cesarean section, Penni Wagenblast was out on the street with no clothes, no car and nowhere to go.

Wagenblast’s husband was caring for their three children at home in Big Bear, but she had to stay near her infant son, Kyle, who was born six weeks prematurely in Saint Joseph Hospital in Orange. He remained in intensive care.

The 37-year-old mother showed up last January at the door of the Ronald McDonald House, the three-story house in Orange that Herb and Pat Watson have made a “home away from home” for families of children hospitalized with serious illnesses or injuries.

At the Ronald McDonald House, Wagenblast found clothes, a comfortable room and volunteers willing to clean her room while she recuperated from the complicated pregnancy and surgery, which required that she be flown by helicopter from Big Bear to Orange County. She was also recoving from the loss of Kyle’s twin brother and a grueling five-week hospital stay before the birth.

At the brightly furnished house, Wagenblast also found the Watsons, a cheerful couple who treated her like a daughter, picking her up at the hospital late at night in the rain and chatting with her about her son’s progress.

“I know I would never have made it through had it not been for the support of those people in that house,” Wagenblast said of the first of several stays at the Ronald McDonald House. “If it hadn’t been for someone to put their arms around me and tell me everything was OK, I never would have made it.”

Wagenblast showed her gratitude Saturday afternoon by throwing a “shower” at the house. Twenty former guests and volunteers returned for two hours, bearing gifts. “We received car seats that we can use in the van in case we have to transport someone with a child, an infant seat, a walker, a crib, bibs, food and toys,” said Pat Watson, a grandmotherly woman with a bright smile. “It was a really special, one-time event. We even had enough money donated so we can buy a stroller.

“It was all Penni Wagenblast’s idea,” Pat said. “She was back here because her son just had surgery at Children’s Hospital (of Orange County). She wanted to give back to the house something, so she arranged this whole thing, had the cake and punch donated and put together a package trip to Big Bear, which one of the volunteers won.”

The Watsons, longtime Orange County residents, live at the Ronald McDonald House and run the place as a team.

Since the house opened in November, 1989, the Watsons have sheltered more than 250 families, who sleep, eat, shower and relax at the Batavia Street home between long, taxing vigils at their children’s bedsides. Twenty cozy, hotel-sized rooms can accommodate mothers who are alone or families of up to four. Most guests stay free.

“Some people arrive here with only the clothes on their backs,” Pat Watson said. Along with a battalion of 81 volunteers and a host of donors, the Watsons try to provide everything else. Given the storage rooms stocked with soap, shampoo, canned food, toys, T-shirts and other supplies, not much is lacking.

“We tell them we’re like the Ritz only we don’t have the view, we’re cheaper and there’s no room service,” Pat said.

Herb Watson, who previously raised funds for CHOC, serves as executive director for the house, promoting public awareness and making sure there is enough money to run the $800-a-day operation without charging families more than $5 a night.

The 66-year-old former Boys’ Club of Tustin director is involved with local fund-raisers and with creating an endowment he hopes will one day provide the house with a steady revenue stream.

His wife Pat is the house manager. She lays down the rules, makes sure they are kept--and broken when appropriate--and keeps the house meticulously neat.

One of Pat’s cardinal rules is that she will not provide counseling, but for those who need to spill a few tears, she provides some TLC and an understanding ear. The relationships often become personal; when Wagenblast’s 6-month-old son returned to the hospital for surgery this time, Watson was the designated blood donor.

“Pat is like a mother to me,” Wagenblast said. “And I needed a mother real bad at that time. I still feel the need to call Pat and tell her what’s going on.”

For the Watsons, who married 17 years ago, running the county’s Ronald McDonald House has become a special mission. Herb, as director of development at CHOC, helped start plans for the house in 1986. He resigned from his job at CHOC to take on the executive director’s post.

Pat, a 30-year veteran of “the volunteer business,” helped at the house when it opened. After the first house manager left a month later, Pat said to Herb, “Let’s sell the house and do this.”

“He said, ‘You’re kidding?’ ” Pat recalled. “I said, ‘No, I feel this is what the Lord wants us to do.’ ”

So they did.

After Pat got the job, the couple rented their Tustin home to their youngest daughter, gave irreplaceable family treasures to their children and sold the rest of their belongings at a garage sale.

“You’ve given up all your things,” a friend remarked to Pat.

“You’ve said the magic word,” Pat remembered answering. “They’re just things. “

The Watsons’ new jobs are made easier by their new extended family: the volunteers, known affectionately as “The Bunch of Pushy Broads” or “Herb’s Harem.” Though the work at the house is often simply housework, the volunteers have fun.

“We’re always laughing,” said Marguerite Price, a volunteer and paid weekend relief manager.

Also aiding the effort are the house’s many sponsors, who contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, goods and supplies. Generous donations meant the $2.5-million house was built for $901,000.

“We were the first Ronald McDonald House to open without a mortgage,” Herb said. There are at least 132 Ronald McDonald houses worldwide.

Cash came from McDonald franchisees and 150 other organizations; appliances came from Whirlpool, construction labor from Mike Harrison Construction, more than 100 quilts from the Southern California Quilting Club, paper products from Scott Towels and Bibles from Gideon.

The list seems endless and the gifts boundless. So many people have donated books that the Watsons have had to put them in one of four self-storage units--donated, of course.

“And every day the phone rings with people wanting to give us something,” Pat said.

Living in what is known as the “house that love built” eases the painful times. Day in and day out, the Watsons welcome families in distress, shock and grief.

For Herb, whose years at CHOC familiarized him with the sight of worried parents camped outside Intensive Care, the atmosphere at the Ronald McDonald House is cheerful and relaxed by comparison.

For some families, Herb pointed out, the house provides the first shower and bed they’ve seen for days. They find other parents going through the same ordeal. And for many of them, Herb said, the House is nicer than any place they’ve ever lived.

For Pat, the sad side is more palpable. She often has long talks with mothers who are nursing very ill infants or whose children are going to die.

Former guests, as well as volunteers, heap praise on the Watsons and attribute the generous spirit of the house to them.

But to the Watsons, the success of Orange County’s Ronald McDonald House is the teamwork that keeps the doors open and the lights on.

“You’re dealing with the best people,” Herb said. “You’re dealing with people who are giving as opposed to asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’ It’s the most rewarding project you could ever be involved in.”