Special deliveries

Once a week, Roy and Margaret Caldwell take a trip from their Opportunity-area home to help some East Valley neighbors.

Their current Spokane Valley Meals on Wheels route has a few more stops than it did when they started 18 years ago. They’ve covered different routes, too, but their service has always delivered much-needed noon meals to the elderly or disabled.

“There are so many people out there who need the service so they can stay home instead of a nursing home,” said Roy Caldwell, in explaining why they continue. “All they need is a meal and someone to check on them.”

Roy had to put his desire to help others on hold for a few months after he was randomly punched in the head last summer. With 80-degree temperatures, Roy had rolled down his car’s windows while he and Margaret were returning to the Meals on Wheels office. A man began walking around the vehicle at the traffic stop, and Roy thought he was panhandling. Then the person unexpectedly hit him.

“It was a sucker punch right in the jaw,” Roy recalled. “Margaret had her cell phone and we called the police. I’m still amazed how fast four cop cars got there.”

The man was arrested and the Caldwells went about their business. Even though his jaw swelled, Roy didn’t think much of it and even joked about it when he went to his work for Spokane Public Schools that evening.

“It was the day after our anniversary and at work I teased that I didn’t give her a card and this is what she gave me.”

However, after experiencing repeated headaches and increasing memory loss, Roy later found out he had developed a blood clot from the blow. With surgery, two weeks in the hospital, physical therapy and recuperation, he just recently returned to helping Meals on Wheels.

“We had a lot of people praying for us,” Roy added. “I think that had to do with my fast recovery.”

Margaret agreed that their faith pulled them through. “One thing that helped us is knowing how God has gotten us through other situations, why not this one?”

Now that Roy is better and they’re volunteering again, both say they enjoy each person on their route. The couple know they are sometimes the only face-to-face contact some people on their route have all day so they try to say something pleasant or uplifting, added Margaret, who works from her home as a hairdresser.

“It’s reaching out to the community and something we can do,” she added. “There have been times we’ve even prayed for some of the people on our route.”

When they first started, the Caldwells sometimes took along their daughter, Melissa, now 21. Today, Meals on Wheels deliveries are just part of their normal routine.

“We have a fun route and we have fun people,” added Margaret. “We often make their day.”

And Roy points out that they are glad to help.

“We had a lady who fell out of her wheelchair one time,” he said. “We helped her and let the office know so they could contact her family. She was OK.”

“Many of these people we’ve known a long time. You enjoy visiting with them.”