At Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola in Florida, hospital volunteer Ken Lee Samples brings a batch of fresh flowers to hand out during his twice-a-week volunteer shifts.
Samples began volunteering at Sacred Heart after witnessing the compassion the staff showed his mother while she received palliative care there seven years ago for stage four liver cancer.
The 67-year-old retiree usually brings about a dozen roses to each shift, but he sometimes brings other flowers. He says giving out the blooms, sharing his time and offering encouragement is his way of helping others. "For me, it's the trials and the storms where God draws near. It's the dark night of the soul where he shines the brightest," Samples says.
Starting off with a prayer
As a child, Samples would accompany his mother as she visited elderly shut-ins. He'd help her clean these neighbors' homes and care for their pets. He says his mother "just taught me about taking care of people."
Decades later, having served overseas in the military and then taken civilian jobs in multiple U.S. cities, he returned to his native Pensacola. When his mother was dying, he took note of the kind caring staff at Sacred Heart who tended to her and the loved ones who visited her. He was inspired to be a part of that caring mission. Since then, he has served primarily at the information desk.
Each day he arrives at his shift, he pauses at Sacred Heart's entrance before going in and prays that God will help him set aside his own struggles to instead focus on the needs of the people at the hospital.
Wes Richardson is manager of volunteer services at Ascension Sacred Heart. He says Samples is one of about 150 volunteers who enhance patients' and visitors' experiences at the hospital.
Samples' biggest impact "just comes from being present," Richardson says. "When folks come into our hospital, they're feeling a range of emotions, and having someone there with a friendly smile and a helping hand makes a world of difference."
Something tangible
Samples likes to offer the blooms to people who appear to be having a rough time. He says he can imagine that many people leave the hospital and go home alone, sitting with their worries about their sick loved ones. He says the flower gives them something to focus on, something tangible.
Samples relishes talking with patients and visitors and learning about their lives. One elderly woman came to the hospital and Samples learned through conversation that her husband's hospitalization was the first time they'd been separated during their 69 years of marriage. He walked her to her husband's room and offered her a rose, which she accepted with gratitude.
Samples says an additional motivation for him is his faith.
He was in the Army when the first of his four children was born prematurely. Worried about her condition, Samples began his faith journey praying for his daughter in her first days of life.
Samples says God has put people and circumstances in his life that carried him through Veterans Affairs positions in multiple cities. His faith was key to his survival when he was briefly homeless while living in Denver. He says God also provided the strength he needed raising his four children, one of whom has a pronounced behavioral health condition. His faith also has helped him handle the loss of both parents, two brothers and a sister.
He says the Scriptures speak of compassion, and that has driven his passion for serving others. "Scripture says you give and it shall be given to you," he says. "I'm planting seeds. If I can plant a good seed or some love in someone else's heart, I reap the harvest every time."