To the Editor:

“I think I’m doing really well,” said 87-year-old, Roseann Malloy. Those are inspirational words from Roseann, considering the hardships she has endured in her lifetime. She inspires me to see life as a gift even if the world serves up some difficult events.

Roseann is a guest at the Guilderland Food Pantry. I am the present director and have had many visits with Roseann in the past year.

I have heard her story when I make food deliveries every five weeks. As I listened, it seemed vaguely familiar until I realized that I already heard part of her story as a young adult growing up in Westmere and going to the same church as Roseann.

I remember my mother hanging up the phone one day and announcing with shock that Donald Malloy had died the previous evening. She told us that he was bowling with Roseann, threw a strike, turned around to tell her, and dropped to the ground, dying of a heart attack.

I was 16 at the time. I went to school with her four children. I remember how horrified I was thinking about how those kids would feel having a father on a Saturday night and not having one on Sunday morning. I tried to imagine how I would have felt if that were my father.

Now it is 44 years later and I'm sitting in Roseann's living room catching up with her as she tells me what happened after I left Albany for college and work in another part of the state. The children — Kenny, Jerry, Donna, and Brian — were all teenagers at the time and they all needed her.

She would return to work to provide for the family at the State Nurses’ Association. She also taught quilting part-time at the Colonie Town Center. She retired after nine years of work because her grandchildren were arriving into the world she wanted to be involved in their lives.

“I do wish that I had worked longer than I did. If I had stayed one more year I would have been vested into my retirement with 10 years of service,” says Roseann. “I was not in the union so no one advised me about retirement. Consequently, I am not receiving a pension today.”

In December 2015 at the age of 86, Roseann was having her bathroom repaired. She went in to check on the work being done and slipped and fell on the tarp the workers had laid down to collect debris. She broke her right hip.

Surgery required rod placement in her thigh and her knee. After three months of therapy, she returned home with a walker. Because her balance was not restored, she fell again within weeks when she reached down to put away a book. She fell over her walker and broke her other hip and a wrist. This time, she returned home with a wheelchair.

Because Roseann also has kidney and heart issues, she requires frequent trips to doctors’ offices. It's very difficult coordinating all those appointments and harder to find the means of transportation. Roseann uses the town's senior van for some doctors’ appointments because it is wheelchair accessible. She cannot use it for trips to Stuyvesant Plaza and Price Chopper because that van is not wheelchair accessible. She takes advantage of Community Caregivers but, if a volunteer is not available that day, they cannot offer her a ride.

"My children all have full-time jobs and cannot take two days a week off to transport me,” says Roseann. "I've tried CDTA but it cost $25 and I cannot afford it. My copay is expensive at $50 a visit and I need to go twice a week for infusions."

Having enough food to eat is a challenge for Roseann also. “I can't get to the grocery store so I tried groceries to go. There must be a $100 minimum and a $16 fee for delivery,” she says. “I cannot eat $100 worth of food so it was silly for me to order that much. The food was just going bad."

When I asked Roseanne about how she heard about the Guilderland Food Pantry, she said, “I was going to the Eddy for rehab and they informed me there was a pantry in Guilderland that would deliver food right to my house. They also told me I could receive one meal a day from Meals On Wheels.

“I love the food the pantry brings me. I get fresh chicken and canned broth and veggies to make a soup. I make fruit salad with the canned fruit I get. I especially like creamed tuna on toast because I get tuna fish, chicken soup, and bread. I don’t know what I would do without the pantry. All the people are so nice to me. If I ask for something, they try to get that item for me."

As I continued my interview with Roseann, I understood her acceptance for her lot in life. Despite not having financial security and struggling to get food and transportation, she remains a very grateful lady.

Her quilting from days long ago still hang on the wall for her to look at. She is always so grateful for the food we bring her and always thanks us as we walk out the door.

“I pray thanks every day to God and sprinkle my holy water on my prayers,” she says. “And I have my dog, Precious, with me every minute.”

Susan Hennessy, director

Guilderland Food Pantry

Editor’s note: The Guilderland Food Pantry, located in Hamilton Union Presbyterian Church at 2291 Western Ave. and online at , operates strictly on donations from the community's churches, schools, businesses, and individuals. Donations may be sent to The Guilderland Food Pantry, Post Office Box 7, Guilderland NY 12084.