“You never feel like you’re less than anyone else. You don’t feel down under anybody. They make you feel like you’re a friend or you’re somebody special. They’re glad to see you and there’s always a smile on their face. It makes you feel good. They make you feel like they really care about you.” - Rita
Needing multiple medications to try to stay healthy after several health diagnoses, medical bills and medication costs mounted for Rita and husband Mason.
Mason was diagnosed with leukemia around 2011 as well as COPD and diabetes, and Rita was diagnosed with lymphoma a few years back. Both being retired, they weren’t sure how they were going to be able to afford the medications they needed.
When the two concluded in mid-2018 to contact the Hunger and Health Coalition pharmacy for help with receiving free medications, Rita said it was a difficult decision.
“We had always been independent,” Rita said. “We didn’t have a lot, but we didn’t depend on other people to give it to us. But it got to the place for us to be able to get our medicine we had to.”
The couple had been coming for quite some time for medication before accepting food from HHC. Rita said while they could have made do without it, the food they now receive allows for more variety than they would have had access to before. The couple receives medically tailored food boxes through HHC's Food is Medicine program as well as supplemental nutrition drinks through the agency’s malnutrition program.
HHC Food is Medicine Coordinator Jonathan Farrior, MS, RDN, LDN, explained that HHC can provide supplemental nutrition drinks — such as Boost, Ensure and Glucerna — through the agency's malnutrition program. HHC currently distributes around 1,200 bottles of supplemental nutrition drinks a month, according to Director of Strategic Initiatives Maura McClain, MS, RDN, LDN. She added that it’s important to treat and prevent malnutrition as it can lead to worse health outcomes and more expensive healthcare costs.
HHC clients can receive these drinks either by having a doctor prescribe them and then supplied through HHC or our nutrition team is able to determine if a client would benefit from having regular use of the drinks.
Jonathan explained that he determines if a client could benefit from the supplemental nutrition drinks if they meet certain malnutrition criteria or if they have health concerns that may benefit from having added nutrients such as protein. Rita shared that her doctor had recommended she start drinking supplemental nutrition drinks, and that without receiving them from HHC they would just be too expensive to purchase at the store.
Sometimes a client may have a reduced physical capacity or some ailment that may keep them from being able to comfortably prepare a well-balanced meal, Jonathan said. Rita said she had been having difficulty standing long enough to make a meal, so HHC helps to provide Boost as well as ingredients she can throw into a slow cooker to make meals.
Rita explained that sometimes it’s difficult for Appalachian folk to reach out for help as a matter of pride. However, rather than seeing the assistance they receive from HHC as a “hand out” Rita said she views it as more of a “gift.”
“With Appalachia, people think of us as poor folk that aren’t able to take care of ourselves,” Rita said. Most of the time, we can take care of ourselves. Sometimes things come up and we can't. It’s nice to have something like this that we can depend on.”
Born in 1946 in Alleghany County, Rita and her parents moved to Watauga when she was less than a year old. The oldest of three, she said she and her siblings enjoyed playing outside and reading while their father was a painter and mother was a homemaker. Rita said her father also ran the projector at the Appalachian Theatre, so sometimes she and her siblings would go and watch movies.
Rita graduated from Appalachian High School — where Appalachian State University’s Chapell Wilson Hall currently resides — in 1965. After high school, Rita started working for International Resistive Co (IRC), which was owned by TRW Inc. then. She said she was a “winder,” who would help to wind the wire around the resistors. A friend of Rita’s who worked with her at TRW had a cousin, named Mason, who they wanted to introduce to Rita.
Mason was born in 1940 in West Virginia, living there for a few years before a brief time spent in North Carolina and then finally settling down in Georgia. He said his father worked for a sawmill and would move each time the sawmill relocated in order to keep a job. Mason graduated from East Fannin High School in Georgia in 1961 and later moved to the Lenoir area to be near some family members.
Mason said his first date with Rita was at the Appalachian Theatre to see “Barefoot in the Park.” After four months of knowing each other, Mason asked Rita to marry him. The two have now been married for 56 years.
“I knew right away,” Rita said. “When he asked me, I didn’t hesitate. I knew there would be bad times and good times, but God has blessed our marriage. I’m a very lucky woman. I can’t say enough about how good of a man he is.”
Rita said she stopped working at TRW when she and Mason decided to have children. They suffered the loss of one child and then had three more children who still live in the Boone area. Mason worked for IRC — which was sold by TRW to another company in 1986 — for 33 years as a janitor before retiring. Rita was a stay-at-home mom who enjoyed cooking for her children and sewing handcrafted dolls to sell at the farmers market. When their children were older, Rita enjoyed helping with childcare at Greenway Baptist Church and First Baptist Church in Boone.
“I just loved it,” Rita said. “You never know if your smile is the only smile that child is going to get.”
The two said they had been blessed throughout their lives but became weary when Mason was diagnosed with COPD, leukemia and diabetes followed up by Rita’s diagnosis of lymphoma. Now on an array of medications, Mason said help from the Hunger and Health Coalition has been a “blessing” and has helped them to “make it through.”
Without the assistance of HHC’s pharmacy, the combined cost that the couple would be paying for their medications would be around $2,000 a month, according to HHC Prescription Assistance Coordinator Makayla Caudill.
“Sometimes it’s a matter of life and death for people who can’t afford their medicine,” Rita said. “I don’t know what a lot of these people would do if it wasn’t for you all. They wouldn’t be able to get their medicine; a lot of people wouldn’t be able to eat.”
When coming to HHC for the first time, Rita said she was nervous, not knowing how the agency’s staff would treat them. Upon arriving, she said they felt “at ease.”
“It has been so remarkable,” Rita said. “You never feel like you’re less than anyone else. You don’t feel down under anybody. They make you feel like you’re a friend or you’re somebody special. They’re glad to see you and there’s always a smile on their face. It makes you feel good. They make you feel like they really care about you.”
Rita said if others in the community could use help from HHC but are on the fence about receiving services, she encouraged them to think about their priorities. “You have to take care of your health,” she said.
For more information on the Hunger and Health Coalition, visit www.hungerhealthcoalition.com/ or call the main line at (828) 262-1628 or the pharmacy at 264-5212.
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