My volunteer service for the Meals on Wheels program is filled with many rewarding moments, an experience that for years has connected me with recipients who appreciate the delivery of a hot lunch five days a week.

But I also have developed a sense of pathos for some of the folks I visit in central Westmoreland County. I'm convinced that some of the elderly should not be living alone. At times, I hold my breath in homes that might be serious accidents waiting to happen.

They are where folks live alone and are barely able to make it to the door to receive the food. In some homes, the door is left unlocked for the delivery person because the recipient may be immobile. For those who are ambulatory it seems like an eternity before the door is opened.

I was shocked on one delivery when I knocked on the door and it seemed too long before the elderly lady shuffled to the door. Trouble was she could not unlock the door to let me in. What to do?

I thought about calling 911, but then I simply yelled the instruction on how to unlock the small twist lock on the doorknob. From what I could tell it was the only exit out of the house. I feared that had there been a fire, the results would have been tragic.

We often are asked to help shut-ins with quick tasks, such as retrieving the mail. One gentleman could not open the spout of a milk container and I offered to do it for him.

Then there was the lady who could not write out a check and she asked me to help her. Another gentleman, confined to a wheelchair, brightens up when I enter his basement living quarters to spend a few moments making small talk about anything. I feel that I've eased his loneliness and he seems grateful.

But there are other more severe problems, such as terrible clutter inside and outside some of the homes. I shuddered in disbelief when I entered the apartment of a woman who is a compulsive hoarder.

Piles of all sorts of stuff lined a thin path from the door to where she sat in her living room. There was nowhere to put the food. She told me to put it in the kitchen, and I had to hop over all sorts of junk that would make for dangerous conditions in an emergency.

During another delivery the driver and I had trouble locating the address on our list. Finally, I knocked on a door and lo and behold, it was the right house. The meal recipient pointed to the three digits of her address that were completely hidden, shielded by some tree branches. I wondered what would happen if an ambulance or a fire truck had to make an emergency visit.

At times, the route also has levity. My driver advised me to hold my breath when I entered the home of a woman known as "the cat lady," because the odor of cat urine would be overwhelming. I followed his instruction, took a deep breath, held it and quickly handed the food package to the woman, who always waited sitting on her bed.

I was doing fine in keeping the odor from attacking my nostrils, but as I left and got as far as the door she called me back and asked me to take a couple letters to her mailbox. Well, I couldn't hold my breath any longer and, yes, the stench was powerful. Ugh!

Practically every Meals on Wheels volunteer has a story to tell and knows something about the folks on these routes. On one of my first routes I drove my car with a couple dozen hot meals to be delivered before noon. Well, my car broke down before we made the first delivery.

What to do, with a crisis in the making and irate and hungry clients waiting for their noon feeding? Luckily, the car broke down in front of the Bacha Funeral Home of Greensburg and I managed to get it into the funeral home's parking lot.

I went in to phone for backup assistance. Not to worry. Funeral director Leo Bacha offered us his station wagon, and we transferred the meals and were on our way. Whew!

Despite my concerns about the safety of some of the aged and infirm clients in need of the Meals On Wheels service, there is always a bright spot for us volunteers. Like the lady who on a frigid morn met me at the door and beamed: "Thank you for bringing me my lunch. ... It's so cold out there. ..."

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