Tuesdays with Mr. Fecher
Mary Ellen Cote assists Mr. Fecher with completing his novel.
Mary Ellen Cote works full-time as the financial secretary at George Fox Middle School in Anne Arundel County. But, one day each week Mary Ellen has a standing appointment at Caritas House with Mr. Fecher. A year ago Mary Ellen and Mr. Charles Fecher had never met - today they both look forward to Tuesday afternoons.
Working all day in a building filled with eleven to thirteen year olds, Mary Ellen was interested in volunteering with seniors. She liked being around seniors, enjoying their company and the stories they shared. She thought she would like to visit a resident on a regular basis, perhaps someone who received few visitors.
Mr. Fecher, a local author, and his wife moved into Caritas House in March of 2007. Prior to coming he had spent five months in the hospital and a rehabilitation center; shortly after arriving, his wife died. These things naturally interrupted work on the novel he had been engaged in writing for sometime.
From their first meeting, Mary Ellen and Mr. Fecher seemed to hit it off. They exchanged phone numbers and set a date for their next meeting. Mr. Fecher was glad to have someone willing to help him return to work on his novel. Mary Ellen was delighted to be of help to someone with such a rich sense of history in his storytelling.
The first 18 chapters of Mr. Fecher’s novel had been written using a typewriter and were saved on disc at his daughter’s home. While working on the new chapters, Mary Ellen became so interested in the novel that she asked Mr. Fecher if she could read the first 18 chapters. He agreed, but what they found was that the original discs could not be read on the computer. They found a company that was able to convert the discs and now have all of the written chapters. Mr. Fetcher can now make changes or corrections throughout his novel. They both were beginning a new adventure.
Mary Ellen helps Mr. Fecher each week by assisting with the functions of the computer. A rather fast typist, he does all of the typing himself and is delighted by the ease with which he can revise his writing using the computer. Mary Ellen feels that the time she spends with Mr. Fecher is important to him, but is sure that she is the real beneficiary of her volunteer work. To be at Caritas with Mr. Fecher is to go to class with a learned teacher and she has learned so much from him. But what Mary Ellen gets back from the time she gives can not be quantified – it is what she takes with her in her heart and thoughts that make her smile as she drives home on Tuesday afternoons.
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