Palos Park couple doing ‘something’ for neighbors
In retirement they deliver nutritious meals with a side of comfort
It’s bright and early Monday morning, and though there are a thousand other places a retired couple can be — lingering over breakfast? wintering in Florida? — Jan Hill and Joe Matula are navigating the snow-dusted streets of Palos Heights.
Life’s been good to these long-married Palos Park residents and so now, with time on their hands, they’re returning the favor.
“Even though we’re old, we’re in relatively good health,” said Hill, a former Moraine Valley Community College reading professor. “We can do something for our neighbors.”
That something is delivering a hot, nutritious meal with a side of comfort and conversation to 26 homes each Monday morning.
The meal this day consists of sweet tangy meatballs with brown rice, corn and a salad. There’s also milk, a roll and some sliced pears.
The menus and the routes are organized by PLOWS Council on Aging, a nonprofit that helps people over age 60 who are physically or psychologically impaired. PLOWS is an acronym for the area it serves: the townships of Palos, Lemont, Orland and Worth.
Catherine Stowers, program manager for PLOWS, said each Monday through Friday, some 500 meals are delivered to clients across the region who fit the criteria of being temporarily or permanently unable to prepare a meal. People who have difficulty standing or getting to a store, for example, might qualify.
The deliveries can be shortterm, such as following a surgery, or long-term for people who are elderly and living alone, she said.
Because social isolation is a big problem today, Stowers said the meals should serve two purposes: provide nutritious sustenance and be a well-being check on the individual.
“It’s conversation, sharing stories, a friendly face,” she said. “It also helps family members feel better. Maybe you can’t visit your loved one every day but you know Jan and Joe are seeing them every Monday.”
Hill remembers how her mother was able to care for her aging parents because she didn’t work. These days, she said, “people have to work and a lot of older people are home alone all day long. It’s kind of comforting to have somebody check in on them once a day and give them a hot meal.”
Besides, she added, “What goes around comes around. We might be in this situation in the future.”
Once approved by a caseworker, a client’s delivery information is added to a route, Stowers said. Recipients are asked to make a suggested donation because the program is only partially funded by the federal government, she said. But if an individual can’t afford to give, the meals keep coming, she said.
Hill, 69, and Matula, 70, joined the fleet of volunteers in November 2018. After a rough January, during which their car got stuck in a client’s driveway, they’ve settled into a routine, discovering shortcuts and littleknown cul-de-sacs in the process.
To some on the route, Hill and Matula are just a delivery service. To others, they’re a vital connection to the outside world.
“Everyone is different,” said Matula, a former teacher, school superintendent and Governors State University professor. “Some people just reach out the door, take their lunch and that’s it. One gentleman, a war veteran, talks for a while, telling us stories. When the weather’s nice, he sits outside and waits for us.”
They’ve learned about clients’ former careers, far-off family members and lost loved ones. One 98-year-old woman who still makes it to church every day confided that she’d recently given up expressway driving.
Matula and Hill try to keep up with the news of everyone on their route, even devising a cheat sheet with the names of recipients’ pets. If someone doesn’t answer the door, or the client seems “off,” there’s a protocol to follow, Hill said.
Indeed on this morning, there’s no response to a rap at one door. Hill tries calling the resident’s phone and when that also goes unanswered, she notifies the office to follow up with the client’s family members.
Matula, who says the couple struggled to spend time together when they were working and raising their now-grown children, enjoys sharing the route with his wife.
Hill seconds the emotion. “He’s got two artificial knees and I have a bad back. So we kind of help each other.”
They also empathize with clients’ mobility issues.
“In our next life we want to study engineering because there’s gotta be a better walker out there somewhere. People come to the door but the door opens inward, so they have to back up to open it,” she said. Some walkers don’t have a tray. Those that do, have one that can’t support the meal.
“You just suffer with them, watching them trying to get around,” she said.
The commitment provides balance to a week that often finds Matula on the golf course. Golf, he said, is “a self-centered sport. So it’s really nice to be able to do something for someone else. And it’s nice to have a route so close. There’s not a lot of driving with this.”
The worst part, Hill said, is having to listen to sports radio the morning after a Bears loss.
The best? When their route is complete, they treat themselves to lunch at a nearby restaurant.