Retired Oklahoma Father, Daughter Make Volunteering A Family Affair

Rick Wells, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Most retirees look forward to taking it a little easy when the career is over, while others choose to use some of that extra time volunteering to help others.

John Williamson and Eileen Plemmons are volunteers in the Admissions department at OSU Medical Center. They work together every Wednesday.

"That's my pleasure is spending all day Wednesday with him, and of course doing what we do," Eileen said. "We get to visit all day long one day a week. We talk about everything."

John is Eileen's father.  They are father-daughter retirees volunteering in the same hospital department. They are among about 30 volunteers working in various department in the hospital.

Eileen and her dad do filing, assemble documents and one of the important jobs: help patients get to where they are going.

John's been doing this for 18 years. He walks the patients to their destination and then he walks back. It's good exercise.

"One day I put on a pedometer, just to check and see how far I walked. That day I walked 2.5 miles," he said.

They're both retired from Tulsa Public Schools. When it was time for Eileen to retire John had a good idea.

"He said when you retire you need to come volunteer with me," Eileen said.

She did. Not only that, she retired for the same TPS job that he retired from, they were both transportation supervisors.  It's a lot of following in your father's footsteps, but they wouldn't have it any other way.

John said when he hits 100, he might start thinking about giving it up, but don't bet on it.