Lloyd Bell icon
Photo courtesy Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital
Santa has some competition when it comes to spreading joy and goodwill at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital, and his name is Lloyd Bell.
Actually, it’s not even a close contest: Santa is around only once a year, but the 96-year-old Bell is there to share a smile and a bit of conversation throughout the year at St. Mary’s. And while Santa has a few years of service on him, Bell is no slouch when it comes to service, either, logging about 37 years of volunteer work at the hospital.
Bell works twice weekly at the hospital, sharing moments with patients and staff. He’s agile and active and says he could still push a patient in a wheelchair, but he’s been taken off that duty and now runs errands such as taking specimens to labs.
“I like doing things for people. It gives me a good feeling," he says.
He’s logged 12,250 hours of service over the years, and his efforts are greatly appreciated. Christine Delaughter, director of volunteer services at the hospital, says Bell’s smile, his cheerful attitude and his willingness to listen to others, and to just take time to talk make him an integral part of the St. Mary’s family.
“Everyone enjoys visiting with him and hearing about his life," says Delaughter. “We should all hope to have such a wonderful life.”
World War II and post-war duties took him to Europe, but Bell is a Richmond native and has lived here most of his life. Music has long been his passion. He has led choirs at a number of Richmond churches. He also met his late wife, Ann, through music. She was an alto in his choir, and found him funny as she watched him subtly preening in a mirror to look his best before his singers.
He earned his master’s in music from the Manhattan School of Music. Bell was a music critic for The Richmond Times-Dispatch and also wrote a biography, “Giovanni: The Life and Times of John Brownlee,” a baritone operatic singer from Australia in the early 20th century.
He was 60 when he retired from the federal government in 1980 and began helping out at St. Mary’s, but he was already a part of the hospital family. His wife, Ann, had made a lifelong dream come true and became a nurse after raising their family. She worked as a nurse at St. Mary’s. They had been married 53 ½ years, he says, before she passed in 2009.
Volunteer work for Bell is more than a way to pass time. St. Mary’s has become sort of a second home, he says. It’s a chance to give back, to help people in crisis and also simply to be around the loving, caring people who volunteer and work there.
St. Mary Volunteers and Bell
Photo courtesy Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital
“I came to volunteer having no idea how much it would grow upon me,” he says. “I’ve always loved it.”
He has no plans to slow down or cut back on his volunteer hours: “As long as the Lord spares me, I hope to do it until I die.”
HEALTHY DEVELOPMENTS
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Dogs on Call
Some local therapy dogs will have their day when they're featured on an Animal Planet show airing on New Year's. The pooches are part of the Dogs on Call program at Virginia Commonwealth University, and they can be seen on an episode of "Dogs: The Untold Story," airing Jan. 1 at 9 p.m., according to a release. VCU patients are visited by therapy dogs and their people through the Dogs on Call program.
Health Equity
The School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University is one of eight medical schools across the nation that will be part of a cohort to promote health equity, with teams working toward attainment of the "highest level of health for all people," according to a release.
