BY KAREN BOSSICK
Tilda Hannebaum has lived in the same house in Bellevue for 53 years.
It's where her late husband Harold invented the Carousel fireplace, a glass fireplace that became a fixture in many a home across America and made the Hannebaums more than a million dollars after its mention in the Wall Street Journal.
It's where Tilda has looked out each day upon her beloved sugar maple trees.
But, after her husband of nearly 60 years died 13 years ago, Tilda gained a lot of weight.
"I ate everything in sight, whether I liked it or not," she recalled.
The weight triggered some health issues, hampering Hannebaum's ability to walk. And peripheral neuropathy exacerbated the situation, causing tingling and numbness in her fee and calves.
"In the 12 years since, I’ve been able to get out the house on my own once,” she said. “I’ve needed people to come here to take me to the doctor. I've never been to The Senior Connection to eat--they've sent meals down to me. And I’ve relied on my friend Tamara (Stricker), whom I've known since she was a kid growing up in the valley, to take me shopping in Twin Falls.”
Stricker realized that part of the problem was her friend's difficulty getting down the steps in front of her house. And so she arranged for Interlink Volunteer Caregivers to put in a ramp accessing Tilda's front door.
Interlink Volunteer Services is a Twin Falls-based nonprofit organization championed locally by people like Joan Davies, Erin Buell and Dale Ewersen, who have accessed the needs of seniors in the valley.
The organization relies on volunteers to provide companionship, shopping, light housekeeping, yard work, snow removal, handyman repairs and other types of volunteer assistance to the disabled, chronically ill and elderly to help them live independently and with dignity in their own homes.
Their first project involved building a ramp for Hailey resident John Davies before he passed away two summers ago. Last year they joined hands with the Senior Connection to provide transportation for Wood River Valley residents to doctor's appointments in Twin Falls and Boise,
One of the first clients they provided transportation for was a 23-year-old foreign worker for Sun Valley Company, who was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Other projects have involved knocking down wasp nests for a blind client in the Magic Valley who was getting stung every time he left the house. Another blind person needed special software for his computer. Still another needed help fixing the faucet.
One woman told Interlink volunteers that she was thinking of taking her life because she didn’t know where to turn. Interlink volunteers saved her life, she said by helping her stay in her little apartment.
“Often it’s the piddly things that can push you over the edge,” said Davies.
Losing her mobility was traumatic for Hannebaum, who had been considered quite the dancer in her younger days.
"People always watched us at parties because they said we always seemed to be floating--Harold looked like Bing Crosby when he danced,” she recalled.
Harold grew up in Indiana where he rode to school on a horse-pulled “school bus.” He said he thought a car monster had eaten his mother and father the first time he saw them coming down the road in the newfangled automobile.
Tilda was born in Gooding where her parents raised cattle.
"The wind brought us here,” she said. “Harold said he had had enough of the wind there. He said, 'If you marry me, I'll give you the moon,' and he gave me the deed to the moon when we married in 1946."
Joan Davies arranged for Wood River Valley firefighters to move the ramp that Interlink volunteer Carl Nellis of Jerome had been built for her husband. And another volunteer affixed a rain gutter across the front of her home to prevent snowmelt running off and creating ice on the ramp.
“I was raised to think that we need to help people—it’s our dues for living here,” said Nellis. “And some of those you help fall over backwards thanking you.”
Interlink is designed to help people who are falling through the cracks, unable to have their needs met by other agencies, such as the Office on Aging, said Interlink Executive Director Edie Schab. Interlink, which is funded by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and private donors, also helps younger people with cancer and other problems who do not qualify for the Office of Aging.
Volunteers are paid a monthly mileage reimbursement. They also receive training and liability insurance.
“We say, ‘Tell us what you need. We’ll figure it out,’ ” said Schab. “What we need are volunteers—volunteers to give the gift of home.”
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