M.J. Wooldridge: So Many Stories

M. J. Wooldridge grew up in a rural part of Kentucky, one of the reasons she loves Rappahannock so much. “I love the topography. I love the gravel roads. I love the fact that I live off a gravel road,” she said.

She has learned a lot about the community in the two decades she’s been here, but particularly in the past four years. That’s how long she’s been a volunteer driver for the RappMedRides and RappRides. Usually Wooldridge drives people for medical appointments or physical therapy, but she also has taken older women on shopping trips.

“It’s constant talking on a lot of these trips,” laughed Wooldridge, who said she tries to drive at least two or three times a month. “That’s one of the reasons I really like working with older people. They are so willing to share their lives and their perspectives. I love what they tell me about their history in Rappahannock.

“They’ll tell you, ‘That used to be this’ or ‘This wasn’t a road; it was just a path.’ And they talk a lot about what it was like to grow up here, what going to school was like. You hear how little they had, but how rich their lives were.”

She said the driving has also given her a sense of how many of Rappahannock’s older residents are alone. “There’s more of these isolated old people than I thought there were,” she said. “And there are probably still more than I suspect out there.”

That’s where volunteering can help make a difference, Wooldridge noted. “People here really work at trying to help people who have been here all their lives to stay here. It’s one person taking care of another taking care of another.”

She also was quick to acknowledge that the benefits go both ways.

“The riders are always saying to me, ‘Thank you so much. You’re giving up your time.’ What they don’t realize is the history they’re sharing and the friendship they’re giving me.”