My name is Megan Golbranson. I am going to be a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame next year. I came to Villa Guadalupe through an eight week Summer Service Learning Program run by the school. With just a couple of days left, I can look back and recognize how much I have learned and how my wonderful people I have met and wonderful experiences I have had. I have learned how to make hamburgers and hot dogs. I have gone to the Grand Canyon and to Albuquerque Zoo. But I have learned the most through the people, the elderly Residents I have met, not the places I have been. Ella Mae is one of those such people. She had a stroke a couple of months ago and lost much of her speech and mobility. I am inspired by her. She is a very sweet woman who always has a smile on her face and a ribbon in her hair. I know she must be very close to God; she has me take her into chapel an hour before Mass every day to pray. I helped her with physical therapy to try to regain the bodily functions she lost after her stroke. She is so focused and she works so hard. Whenever I walk by, she holds out her hand so I come and squeeze it or give her a hug. I am going to miss many of the people I have come to know here, but I will take with me the experiences I have had with the wonderful people I have met.
