Stories of Service

Making a Huge Impact....

Celeste Lombardo

Senior Companions - Oakland/Macomb Counties

Celeste Lombardo has been a volunteer for the Senior Companion Program (SCP) for over three and a half years. In her time with the SCP Celeste has helped over 16 seniors. The families of these clients have said that Celeste made a huge impact in the lives of their loved ones. With their declining health, Celeste was still able to bring happiness to these clients.

The families of Celeste’s clients often sing her praises for providing them with piece of mind. One client’s daughter said “Celeste is an absolute Godsend; I know that my mom is in good hands when Celeste is with her”. Families have peace of mind knowing that their loved ones are able to remain in their own homes instead of being put into an institution.

Celeste says that she had the greatest impact on her previous client, Joy. And she says that Joy had the greatest impact on her. Celeste says “When I first met Joy, she had essentially given up on life until I started talking about her beautiful paintings around the house. She said that she painted them. I suggested she try to paint, because she hadn’t done it in years and just talking about it made her happy. I came over one day and noticed that Joy had a canvas set up and was ready to paint. She was ready to embrace life again even though she knew her body was dying.” Joy was able to create a few paintings before she passed away. One of those paintings, Joy made sure went to Celeste. Celeste says, “I have it in my house and every time I look at it, I think about Joy and what a wonderful person she was. I feel that I helped her to enjoy life again, even though it was for a short amount of time, at least she was happy again.”